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How to Commemorate 1776

Walter A. McDougall

Next year is Americaโ€™s 250th anniversary, and President Trump has promised us a โ€œspectacular birthday party.โ€ The Semiquincentennial Commission is considering a number of grand plans: a โ€œGreat American...

Our Stillborn Renaissance

Walter A. McDougall

Waldoโ€”as the seventeen-year-old Ralph Waldo Emerson took to calling himselfโ€”was one of eight children raised by a stern minister given over to Unitarianism, that โ€œfeather-bed to catch a falling...