Richard D. Brown— After Time asked “Is Truth Dead?” the digital giants Google and Facebook stepped up efforts to help readers distinguish genuine news information from unsubstantiated assertions and fabrications. This is encouraging. But the challenges of fake news, like misleading and erroneous journalism, are nothing new. Over 200 years ago, when
The long-held belief that the Declaration of Independence calls for a small government may not be an accurate assessment. Historian Steve Pincus, author of The Heart of the Declaration: The Founders’ Case for an Activist Government, discusses the meaning of this seminal document as well as its continuing influence in
Steve Pincus— America’s Founders created a dynamic and activist government. This contrasts radically with the standard popular interpretation. With an almost unanimous voice scholars have claimed that America’s Founding constituted a revolution against the state. Britain’s government had become too powerful, too intrusive, and too demanding for colonists in British
Ian Shapiro— Robert Dahl died on February 5, 2014 at the age of ninety-eight. He might well have been the most important political scientist of the last century, and he was certainly one of its preeminent social scientists. In many ways, Dahl created the field of modern political science, understood
Today we’re talking revolutions. We recently spoke with historian Janet Polasky, whose latest book Revolutions without Borders: The Call to Liberty in the Atlantic World discusses the eighteenth‑century travelers who spread new notions of liberty and equality during the time of the American Revolution. What emerges is that the dream of liberty among America’s
Read William Casey King’s “Three Things All Ambitious People Should Know” on the Wall Street Journal‘s “Speakeasy” blog! In credo of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” there seems an implicit acknowledgement of ambition–should one’s desires take you so far. This picture in American life is particularly central to
Journalist Paul VanDevelder, author of Savages and Scoundrels: The Untold Story of America’s Road to Empire through Indian Territory, considers the development of American history from the perspectives of the Founders and what a narrow consideration of the nation’s expansion might mean for how we as Americans—indeed, all types—reflect on
As with other elections in the years past, next month’s contest between Obama and Romney will be influenced by vexed issues relating to religion. Health care and citizens’ access to contraception; same-sex marriage; hate speech; the list goes on. The election is furthermore complicated by the two candidates’ religious beliefs
The debates over religion and religious freedom are almost as American as flying the stars and stripes, fireworks on July 4th, and Friday night football games. In Endowed by Our Creator: The Birth of Religious Freedom in America, Michael I. Meyerson explores the debate between religious freedom and religious idealism,
While you’re staking out prime fireworks real estate at your local Independence Day celebration, pass the hours before nightfall with some entertaining and thought-provoking reading material from Yale Press’s American Icon Series. Gore Vidal’s treatment of our Founding Fathers in his book Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson is the