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History
fromSmithsonian Magazine
1 week ago

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence Was Breaking News. Here's How the Founding Document Reached the American Public

Emily Sneff's book tracks the reception and journey of the Declaration of Independence's first printed copies across the Thirteen Colonies and beyond.
Law
fromHarvard Gazette
1 week ago

When is it time to dissent? - Harvard Gazette

Dissent is essential in law and faith, offering lessons on navigating disagreement productively.
fromArtnet News
2 weeks ago

At 250, America Must Reframe Its Founding Icons | Artnet News

The frame, magnificently ornate and gilded, was intended for royalty and originally surrounded a portrait of British King George II that hung in the college's Nassau Hall.
Arts
Philosophy
fromThe Conversation
2 weeks ago

Philadelphia's founding years were rife with conspiracy fears about 'godless' Freemasons and the Illuminati

Conspiracy theories have evolved with technology, but their nature remains unchanged throughout U.S. history, particularly in Philadelphia's early years.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
3 weeks ago

How Long Can You Live Your Ideals?

Pat Calhoun chooses parenthood over radicalism, paralleling Elsa Haddish's struggle between her militant past and raising her daughter safely.
History
fromSmithsonian Magazine
3 weeks ago

The Spirited Revolutionary Who Led the Fight for Independence in Corsica Also Inspired America's Colonial Rabble-rousers

Pasquale Paoli led Corsica to independence, inspiring American revolutionaries with his innovative constitution and vision for self-governance.
History
fromwww.theguardian.com
3 weeks ago

Slavery bounded his life': Thomas Jefferson's views on race in his own words

Thomas Jefferson's life was deeply intertwined with slavery, influencing his views on liberty and race throughout his lifetime.
Philosophy
fromNature
1 month ago

How the idea of human superiority over nature was invented

Humans are part of nature, not separate from it, and this relationship shapes our understanding of ourselves and other animals.
History
fromSmithsonian Magazine
3 weeks ago

Abigail Adams Asked Her Husband to 'Remember the Ladies' as He Drafted America's Laws. Here's What She Really Meant

Abigail Adams expressed her concerns and thoughts about American independence through letters to her husband, John Adams, highlighting her intellectual engagement during that era.
Philosophy
fromThe Nation
1 month ago

The Hidden History of Free Choice

Choice became central to modern freedom through 17th-century developments in shopping and religious freedom, fundamentally reshaping how societies understand liberty across consumer, romantic, political, and ideological spheres.
History
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

Who Bankrolled the American Revolution?

Historical narratives neglect financial mechanisms that enabled major events, obscuring how money actually funded armies, movements, and pivotal moments.
US politics
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

America Needs 'Self-Evident' Truths

Public revulsion at ICE killings in Minnesota forced federal agents to withdraw and revealed a broad, shared moral opposition to violence against immigrants.
fromHarvard Gazette
2 months ago

Excerpt from 'The Cradle of Citizenship' by James Traub - Harvard Gazette

The same deep forces that afflict many Western nations have wrenched us apart: the transition to a postindustrial economy and the attendant erosion of working-class security, the demographic shift toward a "majority minority" nation, the cultural upheaval that has dethroned men, and especially white men, from their age-old dominance - and the rise of entrepreneurs of outrage eager to exploit all that free-floating anger.
Education
Philosophy
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

The Guardian view on Adam Smith: he deserves rescuing from the free-market myth | Editorial

Adam Smith's economic philosophy has been oversimplified by free-market advocates who misrepresent his nuanced views on self-interest, morality, and the role of institutions in generating wealth.
Law
fromAbove the Law
1 month ago

Standing Up And Cheering For American-ish Principles - Above the Law

Trump's State of the Union challenge to Democrats about protecting American citizens over illegal aliens was a rhetorical trap that oversimplified complex policy issues requiring nuanced discussion rather than simple yes-or-no responses.
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
1 month ago

Jean-Paul Marat: Prophet of Terror

Baker, an experienced historian on Early Modern Europe and J.E. Wallace Sterling Professor in Humanities at Stanford University, aims to 'make sense of those 'sublime words of the prophet-Marat,' the radical journalist and martyred deputy who notorious calls for blood gave voice to some of the most frightful impulses of the French Revolution.'
History
US politics
fromThe Nation
2 months ago

Freedoms Under Threat

Independent, progressive journalism holds the powerful accountable, centers marginalized communities, exposes distortions, and relies on reader support to sustain urgent coverage.
fromThe Conversation
1 month ago

What James Madison can teach Americans about religious freedom today

Since taking office for a second time, the Trump administration has issued a number of executive orders on religion that raise new questions about religious freedom. On May 1, 2025, the administration established the Religious Liberty Commission. The commission will advise the White House on policies intended to protect the free exercise of religion and to prevent discrimination against people of faith by the federal government.
Philosophy
History
fromHarvard Gazette
1 month ago

How Ben Franklin put a charge into American independence- Harvard Gazette

Benjamin Franklin's scientific reputation, particularly his electricity research, provided the authority and credibility that enabled his political influence during the American Revolution.
fromwww.mercurynews.com
2 months ago

Opinion: Liberty doesn't defend itself right now, it needs our help.

In the United States, we haven't yet seen rifles aimed at large crowds, but we do observe masked federal agents detaining protesters in unmarked vehicles, flashy ICE raids staged like military operations and pardons for political violence all clear warning signs. Ignoring this is the first step toward complacency, which can kill liberty. Fascism is often misunderstood. It is not just political oppression; it is a set of traits, as scholars and observers point out,
US politics
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
1 month ago

Liberty's Grid: A Founding Father, a Mathematical Dreamland, and the Shaping of America

The street plan of the Valley is 'the street plan of America.' By this, he means that streets in cities across the U.S. offer rectilinear uniformity: 'broad, arrow-straight avenues, regularly spaced and perfectly parallel to one another, are met at fixed intervals by equally straight and parallel streets that intersect them at precise right angles.'
History
US politics
fromwww.mediaite.com
2 months ago

Stephen Colbert Issues Blunt Warning to Trump From the Declaration of Independence

Stephen Colbert warned President Trump, invoking the Declaration's right to alter or abolish destructive government while condemning the administration's response to Alex Pretti's killing.
Philosophy
Tyranny corrupts all psychic faculties into servants of lawless appetite, with reason producing ideology to rationalize control rather than ceasing to function.
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

American Dissidence

The word that comes to my mind is dissidence. If we want to understand why the whistleblowing, camera-wielding people of Minneapolis have caused the Trump administration-and Donald Trump himself-to flinch, I believe we need some added history, and a bigger map. What we've been watching is part of a long, established tradition-one that might help Americans unlock a different kind of future.
US politics
fromBig Think
1 month ago

How the U.S. Constitution protects liberty from the powerful's dark impulses

The real Führer is always a judge. Out of Führerdom flows judgeship. One who wants to separate the two from each other or puts them in opposition to each other would have the judge be either the leader of the opposition or the tool of the opposition and is trying to unhinge the state with the help of the judiciary.
History
History
fromFortune
2 months ago

How Trump erased the story of George Washington's slave, Ona Judge, who fled from Philadelphia to freedom | Fortune

Ona Judge escaped slavery from the Washingtons on May 21, 1796, slipping out of the President's House in Philadelphia to live freely in New Hampshire.
fromSmithsonian Magazine
2 months ago

Commemorate Presidents' Day With 15 Images That Celebrate the Founding Fathers

Observed on February 22, George Washington's birthday, Presidents' Day became a holiday in 1885. In 1971, the day evolved to recognize all presidents, namely Abraham Lincoln, who was born on February 12. Still a federal holiday 140 years later, Presidents' Day is a time to reflect on the nation's leaders, who have shaped life for its citizens and affected the world in immeasurable ways-for better or worse.
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