holiday posts

Thomas Jefferson: hero or villain?

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The title of this post is not, primarily, a historical question. It is primarily a moral question. We should keep the complexity of the past in mind as we celebrate Independence Day. Check out early American historian’s Jack Rakove‘s recent...

How Thanksgiving became a capitalist holiday

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In Monday’s Evangelical Roundup (available twice a week to Current patrons at the Surface level), I included a piece by Wallbuilders president Tim Barton in which he claims that the seventeenth-century Pilgrims defeated socialism. Here is Barton: We often think...

Good Friday, American style

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Over at First Things, Raymond J. de Souza offers a brief history of Good Friday in the United States. Here is a taste: In most Christian-majority countries, Good Friday is a federal holiday—but not in the United States, even though...

Merry Christmas!

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I’ll be taking a few days off. Someone recently pointed out to me that Linus drops his security blanket in the middle of the speech.

The forgotten virtue of gratitude

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Our annual Thanksgiving tradition here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home.   I wrote this Inside Higher Ed piece on gratitude in November 2008.  –JF It was a typical 1970s weekday evening. The sky was growing dark and I, an elementary school student, was sitting at...

What Would George Washington Think About President’s Day Sales?

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According to historian David Head at USA Today, Washington would have loved President’s Day sales! Presidents Day, like most American holidays, is a celebration of shopping. But unlike holidays such as Christmas or Thanksgiving, where the commercial spirit is a corruption...

A Tale of Two Marches on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

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Here is what happened in Richmond, Virginia with the full support of the president. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLJMoplaT2g&w=560&h=315] The Democrat Party in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia are working hard to take away your 2nd Amendment rights. This is just the beginning....

Out of the Zoo: Holidays Make Us Historians

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Annie Thorn is a sophomore history major from Kalamazoo, Michigan and our intern here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home.  As part of her internship she is writing a weekly column titled “Out of the Zoo.”  It focuses on life as...

The Forgotten Virtue of Gratitude

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Our annual Thanksgiving tradition here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home.   I wrote this Inside Higher Ed piece on gratitude in November 2008.  –JF It was a typical 1970s weekday evening. The sky was growing dark and I, an elementary school student, was...

My 2013 Piece on Christmas at the *Pacific Standard*

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Another magazine has bit the dust.  Read Lloyd Grove’s piece at The Daily Beast on the end of the Pacific Standard. I wrote a piece for the Standard website back in December 2013.  I don’t know if it will disappear or not, so I...

Make the Fourth of July Safe Again!

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Over at Smithsonian.Com, history student Michael Waters tells the story of early 20th-century reformers and activists who were concerned that Independence Day celebrations were too dangerous.  They championed a “Safe and Sane Fourth.” Here is a taste of his Waters’s piece:...

The Politicization of July 4th is as Old as the Republic

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Is Trump politicizing Independence Day with his military parade and “Salute to America” speech?  Of course he is.  And, as historian Shira Lurie reminds us, this practice dates back to the country’s founding.  Here is a taste of her Washington Post piece,...

Easter Break

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We are taking a few days off while I spend time celebrating Easter with family. “Morning Headlines” and the “Commonplace Book” will  be the only posts that will appear here over the course of the next couple of days. See...