Tag Archives: Thomas Jefferson
Are There No Great Movies about the American Revolution?
I have been watching the AMC series, “Turn: Washington’s Spies,” of late. This series is based on a fine book, Alexander Rose’s Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring (2006), which is both informative and exciting to read. This … Continue reading
Wednesday’s Book Review: “The Whites of their Eyes”
The Whites of their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle over American History. By Jill Lepore. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010. There is a war being waged over American history. Sorry if you weren’t aware of it, … Continue reading
Might We Renew the Promise of American Life?
I was struck while rereading Herbert Croly’s 1909 political manifesto, The Promise of American Life, about its continually important message. Croly was a leading figure in the Progressive Movement of the first two decades of the twentieth century, a political philosopher, … Continue reading
Wednesday’s Book Review: “Independence”
Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free. By John Ferling. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2012. Writer John Ferling, has a knack for writing engaging, reflective, and insightful historical narratives. In Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free he tackles the process … Continue reading
Wednesday’s Book Review: “Benjamin Franklin”
Benjamin Franklin. By Edmund S. Morgan. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002. Benjamin Franklin is one of the first rank “founding fathers,” along with Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and George Washington. But he was strikingly different from all of … Continue reading
Wednesday’s Book Review: “An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson”
An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson. By Andro Linklater. New York: Walker and Co., 2009. One of the nation’s hallmark beliefs, bequeathed to the citizens of the United States by the founders, is the … Continue reading
Was the United States Founded as a Christian Nation?
Why do some Americans insist that the United States was founded as a Christian nation? And what does that mean anyway? How does a Christian nation act? Why does one segment—a very vocal segment—of modern American society insists that the … Continue reading
Wednesday’s Book Review: “Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different”
Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different. By Gordon S. Wood. New York: Penguin Press, 2006. This book is an engrossing account of the formation of the United States by one of the most sophisticated and celebrated historians of our … Continue reading
Roger Launius's Blog 