Saturday Good Reads – July 4, 2026 – America 250

Fifty years ago, my wife and I were living in Houston when the Bicentennial celebration occurred. The memories that lasted are the tall ships sailing into New York City, the fireworks at Houston’s Northwest Plaza on July 4 (the the resulting traffic jam when it was over), and Bicentennial Minutes.  

Bicentennial Minutes were hosted by CBS. As the name implied, they were one-minute history lessons, each with a different celebrity narrator. Speakers included movie stars like Paul Newman, Kirk Douglas, and Ed Asner; Alfred Hitchcock; Kukla, Fran, & Ollie; Walter Cronkite; and scores more. Reportedly, CBS initially hated the idea, but it turned into one of the most popular events during the Bicentennial.

 

Somewhat controversial was the sponsor, Shell Oil Company. First, it was an oil company, when many were howling for oil companies to be broken up. Second, it was owned by the Royal Dutch Group, a foreign company, no less, half-owned by British interests. Ultimately, people decided to sit back and enjoy the minutes.

 

I was working at Shell Oil at the time. And my job was reading, researching, and writing about the effort to “break up Big Oil.” Eventually, the issue died, and I moved into the speechwriting group. But I think I’ll always connect those Bicentennial memories with “breaking up Big Oil.”

 

And now, it’s 50 years later, and it’s the 250^th birthday. Happy birthday to all of us! And to the men and women of 1776 who had the courage to make it happen!

 

The Declaration of Independence in its moment

 

The Anticipation of Late June 1776 – Chris Mackowski at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

Declaration of Independence: A Transcription – National Archives.

 

Declarations Before THE Declaration of Independence – Ray Rphaeol at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

The Viking word hidden in the Declaration of Independence – Sophie Hardach at BBC.

 

The Man Who Argued Against Independence – Jonathan Horn at The Free Press.

 

July 2, 1776: “the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America: – Kevin Pawlak at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

The Inner American Revolution – Stephen Mansfield at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

 

Scotland and the Birth of the United States – S. Donald Fortson at Ligonier.

 

On the Semiquincentennial – Spitalfields Life.

 

The War for Independence

 

Monmouth: Longest Battle of the American Revolution – Eric Niderost at Warfare History Network.

 

The Britons who supported the War of Independence – Tom Cutterham at The Conversation.

 

How a tiny Caribbean island made American independence possible – R. Grant Gilmore III at The Conversation.

 

General Washington and the Other Declaration of 1776 – Charlton Allen at American Thinker.

 

The America 250 Celebration

 

Congress dedicates national time capsule ahead of America’s 250^th anniversary – Associated Press via PBS.

 

World Monuments Fund spotlights ten heritage sites for the US’ 250^th – Elena Goukassoan at The Art Newspaper.

 

A History of America’s Milestones: Celebrating Independence – Ron Faucheux at Real Clear History.

 

The Declaration in American History

 

Why Americans Once Held Separate Fourth of July Celebrations – Tim Ott at History.

 

At America 250, Remember the 2 Presidents Who Saved the Declaration – Janice Rogers Brown at Coolidge Review.

 

When Independence Hall Was Almost Demolished – Elizabeth Yuko at History.

 

Assessments of the Declaration

 

Liberty, War, and Sovereignty in American States System: The Declaration of Independence at 250 – Robbie Totten at Isonomia Quarterly.

 

America 250 Forum, Day 1: The Idea of America, Day 2: The Weight of History; Day 3: Giving Thanks as American Christians – Mere Orthodoxy.

 

250 Years of Faith: The Story of Christianity in America – Thomas Kidd at Desiring God.

 

The Radical, Conservative Experiment That Is America – David Deavel at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Our Inalienable Declaration – Jack Butler at The Wall Street Journal (story unlocked). 

 

The Heroes of 1776 – Neil Gorsuch and Janet Nitze at The Free Press.

 

The Declaration of Independence: A Radical Experiment in Liberty by Bradley Birzer – Faith, Fiction, Friends.

 

Why I Wrote Finding the Founding – Casey Spinks at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

The Declaration at 250 – 28 thinkers at Modern Age.

 

Music of the Declaration – Henry Long at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

People Speak

 

The Country I Would Still Die For – Ncholas Dockery at The Free Press.

 

The Summer I Turned Patriot – Josh Kaplan at The Free Press.

 

If Jesus Founded a Nation – Samuel D. James at Digital Liturgies.

 

America 250 and Poetry

 

Bradford Skow and American Independence in Verse – Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

What America Was Meant to Be – poem by Mike Johansson at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Philip Freneau: Poet of the American Revolution – Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

The First of Modern Nations and An Errand into the Wilderness – poems by James Matthew Wilson at Word on Fire.

 

“Old Ironsides,” poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Paul Revere’s Ride – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

 

The Declaration of Independence – read by Max McLean

Painting: The Signing of the Declaration of Independence, oil on canvas (1818)  by John Trumbull (1756-1843), U.S. Capitol Rotunda.

Poets and Poems: Bradford Skow and “American Independence in Verse”

Before the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution, there was at least some 15 years of growing American disenchantment with Britain. The roots of the American Revolution lie in the French and Indian War (1756-1763), but it’s often said that the American Declaration of Independence has its roots in the Magna Carta.  

Fortunately, the historical landscape is littered with documentation of what was happening in the American colonies: statements, declarations, letters, newspaper reports, speeches, and more. The 15 years before the Declaration was a ferment of ideas, debates, and arguments that grew with every new event, every new action by the British government.

 

What is striking about all this is what a literate ferment it was. Menand women argued literately on both sides of the governance and independence question. You can read only some of these documents before you realize how articulate and passionate they are.

 

And poetic.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

4^th Sunday of Each Month – poem by J.A. Gilbert at Frivolous Quill.

 

New Video! – Brookhaven | Civil War Novel – Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

Seeing Slant in the Company of Others – Eric Malczewski at Front Porch Republic.

 

“The Men That Don’t Fit In,” poem by Robert Service – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Crème Brulee -- poem by Toby Alfier at Every Day Poems.

Some Monday Readings - May 4, 2026

Tolkien, Chesterton, & the Sloth of England – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative. 

Who Really Wrote Philip K. Dick’s Best Novel? – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Plato’s Cave and the Rise of the Highly Educated Radical – Jacob Howland at The Free Press.

 

The Greatest Sentence Ever Written? – Christ Mackowski at Emerging Revolutionary War Era. 

 

Celebrating 15 Years with the Kettle On – Every Day Poems – L.L. Barkat at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

Illustration: The Declaration of Independence. 

Independence Day - July 4, 2024

The Declaration of Independence – National Archives. 

Notes before Independence Day 2024 – Kathleen at The Course of Our Seasons.

 

Town Born! Turn Out! – New England’s Precedent of Independence – John Wilson at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

Celebrating Freedom – Martha Orlando at Meditations of My Heart.

 

The Landlord’s Tale: Paul Revere’s Ride – poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Freedom isn't free. Never forget - Bill Grandi at Living in the Shadow.

 

The New Colossus – poem by Emma Lazarus. 

The True Meaning of Freedom & How to Defend It - Dr. Art Lindsey at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

 

I Hear America Singing – poem by Walt Whitman.

Thirteen Clocks Striking Together: The Forging of American Independence - Alison LaCroix at The Imaginative Conservative. 

Happy Fourth! – Brian Miller at A South Roane Agrarian on the Battle of King’s Mountain.

 

The Beautiful Send-Off: Jefferson and Adams’ Legendary Final 4^th – Jason Clark at This is the Day.

 

“Old Ironsides,” poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Last Days of a Revolutionary – Hillsdale College.

 

Your Constitutional Right to Be a Pirate – A.J. Jacobs at The Free Press. 

 

Battle Hymn of the Republic – poem by Brian Yapko at Society of Classical Poets.

 

A Republic – If God Keeps It – David Mathis at Desiring God.

 

We Became American Because We Could – Jake Meador at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Meet the American Who Wrote ‘America the Beautiful’ – Kerry Byrne at Fox News.

 

Explore the American Revolutionary War – History.com. 

 

Great Balls of Fire – Asher Gelzer-Govatos at Front Porch Republic.

The Star Spangled Banner - Sandi Patti and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (1986)

Painting: The signing of the Declaration of Independence, oil on canvas (1817)  by John Turnbull (1756-1843).

Born on the 4th of July

I always associate the Fourth of July with beaches. This might likely have to do with the family vacation we took when I was nine years old. My mother was pregnant with my younger brother, and she was feeling so bad that we cancelled our vacation to Pensacola, Florida (four hours by car from where we lived in New Orleans). My older brother and I were disappointed, but she was sick, so what could you do?

And then she rallied. We had lost our reservations, but my father found another hotel, the Congress Inn in Pensacola Beach, with the help of a telephone operator in Pensacola (yes, there used to be real people you dialed for information and phone numbers in distant cities). I can remember standing in the kitchen, probably dancing in nervousness, while he talked with her.

And we were off. It would only be for three days, but that was sufficient.

My mother would spend most of the three days resting in our room. But it was the beach! Sunshine! Sunburns! Seafood! And the fireworks lighting up the night sky on the Fourth of July.

I probably didn’t think too much about the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. But I am thinking about them today.

They ranged in age from 26 to 70. Edward Rutledge, a South Carolina lawyer, was 26. The oldest was none other than Benjamin Franklin, age 70. One of the signers, Richard Stockton of New Jersey, later recanted his signature. Eight of the signers had actually been born in Great Britain.

These 56 men (yes, it was all men; that’s how it was in 1776) knew full well they could be signing their death warrants. And they knew they had put everything at risk for what they cared for – family, position, wealth, professions, their everyday lives – everything went into play. But they believed the risk was worth taking, and the alternative was unacceptable.

I am thinking about them today, especially today, a few days after the Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case. A court divided on ideological lines said Hobby Lobby did not have to pay for employees’ contraceptive services as required under the Affordable Care Act. The next day, the court expanded the decision to apply to six other pending cases.

The reaction was predictable, and indicative of the times we live in. For some time, our politics, and political rhetoric, have been an all-or-nothing proposition. We don’t debate any more, we don’t even argue. We scream past each other. And so it was with the Hobby Lobby decision. And our incessant 24-hour news cycle, with its insatiable demand for news, commentary, speculation, opinion, and rants, helped fuel another opportunity to keep screaming past each other.

Eventually, we’ll learn the real impact of the decision. I suspect it was neither a total triumph of religious liberty nor a total destruction of women’s rights, although that’s what you would have understood from the media coverage. Of course, the media coverage looked tepid compared to what happened on the internet.

We do have a precedent for this kind of polarized rhetoric, where the stakes kept increasing and the screaming kept getting louder. And that is the decade of the 1850s, and what happened after the so-called Compromise of 1850. The polarized screaming finally ended in December, 1860. A few months of relative silence followed, and then came April 12, 1861.

So I think about those 56 men, risking it all, putting everything on the line when they signed a piece of paper together in Philadelphia. And the Fourth of July is not about beaches, barbecues, sunburns and fireworks. Not really.

Illustration: Painting of Fireworks by Lilla Frerichs via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.