Authors, historians, and scholars have been commissioned to reflect on the American Revolution and its enduring legacy. We welcome your reflections as well.
Was Washington a great general? In seven years of fighting the British, from 1775 to 1782, he won only three clear-cut victories— at Trenton, Princeton, and Yorktown. In seven other encounters—Long Island, Harlem Heights, White Plains, Fort Washington, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth—he either was defeated or at best could claim a draw.
Too often we remember the American Revolution--- or, more narrowly, the “American founding”--- through a handful of men. We need not list their names; their justified fame has brought familiarity and, in recent years, an entire shelf of readable new biographies.
The United States is the product of a unique history, and in no area is that more evident than in the realm of religion. Americans have managed to produce a pattern of religious life that is vibrant, diverse, and tolerant.
To understand where the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights come from, it helps to know about a Town of Boston document from 1772, “Rights of the Colonists.”