Michael A. Blaakman is Assistant Professor of History at Princeton University. This interview is based on his new book, Speculation Nation: Land Mania in the Revolutionary American Republic (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023). JF: What led you to write Speculation […]
American Revolution
The Author’s Corner with David Houpt
David Houpt is Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. This interview is based on his new book, To Organize the Sovereign People: Political Mobilization in Revolutionary Pennsylvania (University of Virginia Press, 2023). JF: What led […]
Andrew Wehrman wins the Massachusetts Historical Society’s Gomes Memorial Book Prize
The Central Michigan University history professor won the prize for his book The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution. Listen to our interview with Andrew Wehrman in Episode 107 of The Way of Improvement Leads […]
What did the founding fathers mean by “virtue”?
Recently a follower on one of my social media sites asked me for some reading material on the 18th-century understanding of virtue. I have tried over the years to inform many of my fellow evangelicals that when the founders talked […]
Saturday Night Live on George Washington’s dream for America
SNL at its best:
Friends and relations, part I
When it comes to our international friends and relations, it’s not always clear to everyone who they might be or should be.
Call for Papers: “Intellectual Histories of the American Revolution”
I just got this call for papers in the mail. It looks like a great conference and they are even willing to pay your way to Ireland! CFP: Intellectual Histories of the American Revolution: Kylemore Abbey, Ireland, 15-17 August 2024 […]
Os Guinness keeps pushing his faulty American Revolution vs. French Revolution thesis
Watch Christian commentator and author Os Guinness at the Family Research Council’s “Pray Vote Stand Summit”: Guinness sounds like an old Federalist–a defender of order. He, of course, is free to take such a position. But his view of the […]
Benjamin Rush’s “Travels Through Life”
The American Philosophical Society has digitized eight handwritten volumes of Declaration of Independence signer Dr. Benjamin’s Rush‘s “Travels Through Life.” J.L. Bell has the story at Boston 1775. A taste: Here’s another source on the Revolution recently digitized: eight handwritten volumes of Dr. […]
Could Vivek Ramaswamy pass his own citizenship test?
I think the upstart GOP presidential candidate would get at least one question wrong. Here is College of the Holy Cross historian Ed O’Donnell: Here is the full context: See our take on Ramaswamy’s recent GOP debate performance here. George […]
What role should environmental history play at sites devoted to the American Revolution?
Blake McGready is program assistant at the Gotham Center for New York City History and a Ph.D candidate at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Check out his piece at The Panorama on the what he […]
“America’s commitment to independence shaped how Americans utilized the Bible from the very beginning.”
When you hear presidential candidates like Tim Scott and Mike Pence quote the Bible on the campaign trail for the purposes of advancing their political agendas, please realize that this is not a new thing. Here is a taste of […]
Jack Hibbs: “If we were writing the Bible today, George Washington would be included”
In this video, podcast the pastor of the Calvary Church-Chino Hill (CA) reveals just how the Christian Right manipulates the past to promote its political agenda. I can’t tell whether these pastors are just ignorant or they are deliberately lying. […]
The Author’s Corner with Farley Grubb
Farley Grubb is Professor of Economics at the University of Delaware and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). This interview is based on his new book, The Continental Dollar: How the American Revolution Was Financed by […]
Josh Hawley’s conservative populism was on full display at Road to Majority 2023
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley made a visit on Friday to the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority 2023” conference. Watch: If you watched the speech you can see that Hawley wasted no time identifying with the crowd: I’m proud […]
The Author’s Corner with Sarah Naramore
Sarah Naramore is Assistant Professor of History at Northwest Missouri State University. This interview is based on her new book, Benjamin Rush, Civic Health, and Human Illness in the Early American Republic (University of Rochester Press, 2023). JF: What led […]
Stephen Wolfe’s book on Christian nationalism “is worth a read only in the same sense that rubbernecking at a car crash counts as sightseeing”
Recently the Christian nationalist historian Stephen Wolfe tweeted several passages from my book Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?: A Historical Introduction. Here is the tweet: Here is the entire tweet: I don’t have the time or inclination to […]
Revolutionary War soldiers who died at the Battle of Camden will get a proper burial
Here is Kathleen Parker at The Washington Post: A Swedish mother visiting her daughter watched in wonderment at the crowd gathered for a funeral honors ceremony for Revolutionary War troops — replete with a parade, a play, prayers and a plethora of […]
Historian Linda Kerber revisits Women of the Republic
Last week in my American Revolution course we debated how the revolution influenced the lives of women. In the course of our discussion I introduced the students to Linda Kerber‘s idea of “republican motherhood.” This didn’t take too much pedagogical […]
Patrick Spero is the new Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
Big news in the world of presidential and revolutionary-era American history: The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association is proud to announce the appointment of Patrick Spero, Ph.D., as the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library housed within the Fred W. Smith National Library […]