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 […]
The way of improvement leads home book
Happy University Press Week!
I’ve published three books with university presses in my career and spent a lot of time at this blog promoting the work of American historians who publish with university presses. This is why I am happy to call your attention […]
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 […]
On reading other people’s diaries
This weekend my daughter and her boyfriend came to visit for Thanksgiving. It was his first visit to our stately abode in south central Pennsylvania and during the course of his stay she decided to show him my basement office. […]
Is religion good for the republic?
The founders believed that religion was important to a strong republic. Republics required virtue–the willingness to occasionally sacrifice self-interest for the public good. If religion could make people more virtuous, the founders promoted it. I am convinced that if there […]
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 […]