A few things online that caught my attention this week:
Interesting graph on liberal arts majors
Robert Cornwall reviews Charles Marsh, Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Miles Mullin reviews Randall Balmer, Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter Art Remillard interview Balmer here.
Writing 400,000 words in one year
Tracy McKenzie reviews Matthew Stewart, Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic.
Moravian pacifists and Independence Day, 1783
Wilfred McClay remembers John Dickinson
Annette Gordon-Reed reviews Fred Kaplan, John Quincy Adams: American Visionary
Why Americans love to declare independence
Timothy Beal on evangelicalism
Ulysses S. Grant sees the world
Benjamin Moser reviews Alex Beam, American Crucifixion: The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church
Telling lies about the American founding
Why can’t Northwestern University make the NCAA tournament?
Eric Herschthal reviews Claudio Saunt, West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776
Steven B. Smith reviews Danielle Allen, Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality
RECOMMENDED READING
REVIEW: What Would Adam Smith Do? 
Democratic Spirit: Ulysses S. Grant at 200 
What Liz Cheney forgot to mention on Tuesday night about U.S. Grant and the end of the Civil War 
Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center just released the summer issue of its journal “Reclaiming 1776.” Let’s take a look.
Telling lies about the American founding [link]
The Dangerous Lies We Tell About America's Founding
Myths may comfort us, but facts are our best weapon against Tea Party perversions
“a founding myth that…more than half of Tea Party members believe: that our Founding Fathers were religious men, and that America is therefore a “Christian nation.”
…
“[T]o what degree did the Founding Fathers consider themselves loyal to the version of Christianity that prevailed in America at their time? Not much, [Matthew] Stewart concluded after a decade of research.
“Deism, he argues persuasively, “is in fact functionally indistinguishable from what we would now call 'pantheism'; and pantheism is really just a pretty word for atheism.” Them’s fighting words.
Y'know, John, why does Barton get all the flak and BS like this in the liberal The New Republic get a free pass from the Ivory Towers of Truth?
http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Founding-Fathers-Were-Not-Deists-John-Fea-02-02-2011.html
“The Dangerous Lies We Tell About America's Founding” indeed.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2014/07/04/questioning-america-christian-roots/XVNKjkViIzncq9Rr9T7DMM/story.html?p1=ArticleTab_Article_
The Boston Globe.
“Boston-based writer Matthew Stewart”: “I was amazed at the disconnect between the richness of these facts and the tawdry and quite bigoted version of the American Revolution of someone like [evangelical Christian writer] David Barton.
The last thing any sane man wants to get caught doing is defending David Barton.
But “bigoted?” You know enough about Barton to know that for all his failings, that's a slander.
Sorry to dump this on your doorstep, Dr. Fea, but where does this all end? Lines have been crossed, but who dares to speak up?