Ironically, I have spent most of the day today reading the letters of Anglican Loyalists. So, for the sake of balance, here are some reflections on July 4th, courtesy of today’s national newspapers and other outlets.
In the Boston Globe, Harvard economics professor Edward Glaeser writes about the urban dimensions of the American Revolution and other revolutions like it. No rural Enlightenments here!
At History News Network, Richard S. Newman reviews James Colaiaco’s Frederick Douglass and the Fourth of July. (Actually, this review originally appeared in May).
The Washington Post editorial writers, using Daniel Walker’s Howe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning, What God Has Wrought, traces the birth of American nationalism not to 1776, but to the Battle of New Orleans (1815).
Also in the Post, Edward Larson, another Pulitzer Prize winner and the author of the recent Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America’s First Presidential Campaign, throws a damper on any attempt to lay partisan bickering aside on Independence Day by reminding us that America has a long history of political mudslinging.
In what I found to be the most informative and enlightening op-ed piece of the day, Ted Widmer, writing in the New York Times, sets the record straight on the Declaration of Independence or, as the Anglicans called it, “The Declaration of Independency.”
And though it is not an op-ed, how can we ignore the recent marriage of Ben Franklin and Betsy Ross, with Philly mayor Michael Nutter performing the ceremony in front of Independence Hall! I have a hunch that Philip Vickers Fithian might have been interested in witnessing this one–or perhaps he did! (Scroll down).
Interesting selection of articles! I particularly enjoyed Betsy and Ben!
I really like the Glaeser essay–since Peter Oliver has been on my mind it prompts me to read him from yet another vantage point–that of “urban religion,” 18th century style. And I was unaware of the book on Douglass’s speech. I heard a great, impactful reading of it a few years back on the local Pacifica network, and the speech comes to mind every July 4. Thanks for head’s up, and for reminding me of the speech. eminder.