The American Crisis

A Journal of History, Reflection, and Commentary

Ideas

Thomas Jefferson and the Meaning of Self-Government

By C. Bradley Thompson

Thomas Jefferson’s inauguration in 1801 ushered in an era of laissez-faire founded on Jefferson’s confidence in the capacity of people to govern themselves.

This is a photograph taken a few seconds after the 1903 Wright flyer took off on the first powered airplane flight.

Commentary

Redeeming Higher Education

The National Association of Scholars has proposed an ambitious curriculum to combat the decline of American higher education. It’s time for many more Americans to join this fight.

Ideas

Why Is the American Revolution So Important?

In the cover story of the spring issue of American Heritage, our editor, Jack Warren, summarizes the importance of the Revolution, which he says articulated the fundamental principles that have shaped our national experience.

Places

The Crisis at Manassas Battlefield

Manassas National Battlefield Park has been threatened several times since it was created in 1940. In the 1950s the threat came from an interstate highway — in the 1970s an amusement park — and in the 1980s a shopping mall. Today it’s the world’s largest industrial data center — and as always forgetfulness about the powerful ways the Civil War shaped us.

People

The Secret of Flight

Navigating the ocean of air that surrounds our world is now so routine that we can hardly imagine our lives without it. Yet we are not so far removed from a time when many people regarded heavier-than-air flight as a fantasy. Then Wilbur and Orville Wright — two young bicycle mechanics — learned how to fly. How did they accomplish something so many others had tried and failed to do?

The Declaration of Independence, John Trumbull, Yale, square detail

Ideas

Getting Right with the Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence is our manifesto of national purpose, expressing ideals about liberty, equality, natural and civil rights, responsible citizenship, and popular sovereignty that have defined us for 250 years. It should be at the center of American history education.

Departments

This is a modern painting of a black soldier of the light infantry of the Sixth Connecticut Continental Infantry, wearing the distinctive light infantry leather cap. While not a portrait of Jeffrey Brace — a light infantryman in the regiment — it is probably as close as we can come.

People

The Heroic Jeffrey Brace

Jeffrey Brace endured the horrors of slavery, served with honor in the Revolutionary War, and then reclaimed his freedom.

In this 1863 photograph, citizens of Gettysburg and others, including a little dog, watch the procession to the cemetery where Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.

Ideas

The Shot Heard Round the World

News of the American Revolution reached Japan after 1800. The Japanese had to improvise a word for republic.

The gravestone of Nicholas Starr is one of many memorializing the victims of the Fort Griswold massacre.

How We Know

The Tragedy of Fort Griswold

A ferocious massacre marked the end of our Revolutionary War. How do we know what happened?

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Why The American Crisis?

Our nation is facing a crisis of confidence in our ideals and institutions, of commitment to our country, and of understanding and appreciation of our shared history — a crisis that threatens our republic, our national identity, and the freedom we should all cherish.

We believe renewed understanding of our shared past is vital to our future. We draw inspiration from Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis. At a desperate time in our Revolution, he called on Americans to face the nation’s challenges together. “Tyranny, like hell,” he wrote, “is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” Our aim is to address the crisis of our time with that determined spirit, encourage interest in our rich history, and renew commitment to our highest ideals.

Emanuel-Leutze,-Washington-Crossing-the-Delaware,-MMA-(detail)

Move Along — Nothing to See Here

The American Historical Association says critics are wrong: history education isn’t compromised by ideology. But it doesn’t say why history education is failing.

Joseph Plumb Martin, Everyman

It’s not every man who can play Everyman, but Joseph Plumb Martin pulled it off with what looks like effortless ease. His Narrative of some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier is one of the most insightful first-hand accounts of the Revolutionary War.

Margaret Corbin, Revolutionary

Liberty is usually depicted as a goddess in white. Margaret Corbin’s story suggests liberty ought to be personified as a woman in a tattered skirt and a torn shirt, her face black from burnt powder, her hands dirty and bloodstained, her expression angry, defiant, and determined.

Lessons from the Boston Massacre

On the night of March 5, 1770, a party of British soldiers shot and killed five Bostonians in an event known ever since as the Boston Massacre. The tragedy still has much to teach us.

New Report Exposes Failing U.S. History Courses

A new study finds that basic U.S. History survey courses in our universities no longer address fundamentals. Many are now devoted to persuading undergraduates that American history is a grim story of racism, oppression, violence, greed, exploitation, failure, and national decline.

Broken Officer

The first published depiction of the Battle of Bunker Hill may look fanciful, but it documents two real controversies.

Verrazzano's America

Five hundred years ago Giovanni da Verrazzano became the first European to explore the Atlantic coast of what would become the United States and leave us with a personal account of the places and people he encountered. He concluded that America was “another world” unlike Europe, Africa, or Asia.

Huckleberry Nation

Huckleberry Finn lost interest in Moses when he learned that the prophet had been dead a “considerable long time.” Huck knew a little history, but most of it was pretty garbled. Modern Americans are not much different, according to the latest assessment of history education.

Why We Honor George Washington

As we celebrate Washington’s Birthday at a time of crisis in our cultural life, we should reflect on what he did to merit such honor.

Our Fathers

When Abraham Lincoln to “our fathers” in the Gettysburg Address, he wasn’t talking about famous statesmen. He was talking about ordinary Americans.

My Country, 'Tis of Thee

American patriotism is commonly misunderstood. It is not synonymous with nationalism. It is a piety that ties us together and embraces our ideals and finest traditions.

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Subscribe to The American Crisis — at no charge — and receive email notices of new features, participate in our reader polls, and keep current with news and discussions about American history and public life.

The American Crisis presents original historical writing, commentary and reflection on public life inspired by American history and traditions, and news and opinion about the conservation of American ideals and the rich cultural and natural resources we have inherited and for which we are responsible.

We are advocates for understanding and appreciating the American past, for the preservation of historic places, and for accurate and effective history education.

The Foundation of American Ideals

The Foundation of American Ideals advocates understanding and appreciation of independence, liberty, equality, natural and civil rights, and responsible citizenship — ideals at the heart of our national identity and shaped by our history and traditions.

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