Historian Tara Strauch reminds us that laws don’t truly make holidays. We have to learn how to celebrate them together. In her recent piece at The Washington Post she compares the acceptance of Juneteenth with the celebration of another regional...
When Biden signs the bill June 19th, the day celebrating the emancipation of enslaved Americans, will become a federal holiday. On Tuesday, the Senate endorsed the bill unanimously. Yesterday, the House passed the bill by a vote of 415-14. Here...
James Taylor:...
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...
Donald Trump is hoping to celebrate three resurrections on April 12, 2020. Here they are in order of how I believe the president has prioritized them: His own political future The American economy The resurrection of Jesus Trump knows that...
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....
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...
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...
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...
T.H. Breen brings the thunder: President Trump has invited the American people to what he claims will be the biggest and best Fourth of July celebration in the nation’s history. Influenced by the huge nationalist displays he witnessed in Europe,...
Barack Obama: Happy Fourth of July, everybody! This is always a great day in the Obama family: a chance to celebrate America—and Malia’s birthday, too. Hope all of you are able to get some time with friends, family, and fireworks....
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:...
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,...
Courtesy of presidential historian Michael Beschloss’s Twitter feed: Context...
An excerpt from Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump: If you picked up this book and have made it this far, you will not be surprised that I think about evangelical political engagement from the perspective of a historian. ...
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pRiRJOIWCM&w=560&h=315]...
Taking a few days off. See you in a few days. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eff0cqYefYY&w=560&h=315]...
Our annual Thanksgiving tradition here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home. I wrote this Inside Higher Ed piece on gratitude in November 2008. Hard to believe that was ten years ago. Today I republish it on the same day that my parents move out...
J.L. Bell debunks the myth at Boston 1775. A taste: Even the White House Historical Association passes on that factoid, though fobbing it off on others: “Some historians note that First Lady Dolley Madison originally suggested the idea of a public...
This Advent season, on the recommendation of several The Way of Improvement Leads Home readers, I am reading Biblical scholar N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. I don’t know Wright’s body of...
