History

What Thomas Jefferson Meant by ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’4
- Politics, History
- March 2, 2023
The idea of the “pursuit of happiness” is in our societal DNA. Yet, this “unalienable right,” immortalized in the Declaration of Independence, has often puzzled people. What exactly did Jefferson mean? Most people think of happiness as feeling good, but that is not what Jefferson meant. Pleasure and happiness are not the same. Our happiness
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Why Reparations Make No Sense 14
- Politics, History
- January 13, 2023
Among many tell-tale signs of the tectonic fissures dividing the nation, perhaps the most telling is the call by prominent Democrats and others for reparations. A recent proposal by California governor Gavin Newsom calling for reparation payments of a potential $223,200 per black resident pushes the matter once again to the fore. Reparations refers to
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Anti-Christian, Anti-Human: Early Communism in Russia 2
- History, International
- December 13, 2022
Most Americans oppose communism as a failed and evil system, but their understanding of its mechanisms remains incomplete. When assessing the shortcomings of the Soviet Union, a conservative would be quick to point out the failures of central economic planning; a liberal might criticize the USSR’s militarism; and both would likely condemn its widescale human
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George Washington’s Thanksgiving Message: What A Different Era 5
- From the Editorial Board, History
- November 24, 2022
Thanksgiving is a quintessential American holiday. It is a holiday that in many ways requires some sense of the supernatural – whether we care to acknowledge it or not. Below you will find our first President’s proclamation of Thanksgiving in which his sense of the hand of Providence upon the American Republic is quite clear. Indeed,
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Speaking Truth to Power: The British Prime Minister Who Defended the American Colonies 1
- History, Politics
- November 10, 2022
The popular phrase, “speak truth to power,” implies that power is hostile to truth and that power might benefit from giving truth a hearing. It also suggests that the speaker runs some risk for speaking it. People unafraid to speak truth to power are among the great heroes of history. They raise our standards and
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What the American Founders Meant by Equality 3
- Politics, History
- November 4, 2022
The Declaration of Independence famously proclaimed that “all men are created equal.” Thanks in part to that prestigious endorsement, “equality” has become a widely held social ideal. But what most modern-day egalitarians promote is far removed from the kind of equality that the authors of the Declaration were referring to. Many today invoke “equality” to
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