I published this piece at Common-Place, back in 2008. I thought I would repost it for Valentine’s Day: Can Presbyterians fall in love? Okay, everyone falls in love, but when people think of Presbyterians they normally conjure up images of […]
Philip Vickers Fithian
Roots
Every year in my United States history survey course we spend three or four class periods talking about the meaning of democracy in antebellum America. During a small seminar I introduce students to Alexis De Tocqueville, the author of Democracy […]
Philip Vickers Fithian: “The young American torn between cosmopolitan aspiration and more rooted satisfactions”
Today I heard from a professor who is using The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in an American history course. I am grateful for the way this book continues to resonate with people. […]
18th-Century British-Americans getting homesick
As someone who wrote extensively about homesickness in my first book, I thoroughly enjoyed J.L. Bell’s recent post at Boston 1775. He even mentions Philip Vickers Fithian! Here is a taste: One might assume the word was still working its […]