Your 15-Minute Guide to 250 Years | America in Pursuit
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What anniversary is being celebrated in this episode?
Hey, ThruLine listeners, it's Rand here.
And Ramtin.
So as many of you know, this year marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
On July 4th, 1776, the Declaration boldly announced to the world that 13 British colonies were shedding the weight of empire and separating from Great Britain under the banner of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
a new nation called the United States of America was born. And it would be guided by a radical idea that ordinary people could and should govern themselves, that the noisy chaos of democracy was worth it and possible.
Like all milestone anniversaries, this year is a chance for us to stop and ask ourselves, what is the American story? What have we achieved in the past 250 years? Where have we stumbled? And where are we headed next?
These are big questions, especially right now when the country is arguably more divided than ever on what the future should look like or even what counts as American history.
Yeah, there's no sugarcoating this. As we approach the 250th anniversary, there's going to be a lot of celebrations and also a fair amount of people who just don't think there's much to celebrate.
Where does this leave ThruLine? Well, we knew as NPR's history show, we wanted to do something to mark this year. So we're launching a new weekly miniseries that's part of NPR's America in Pursuit project. Every Tuesday from now until July 4th, we'll feature a different moment from our archives that all together will take you on a journey through the last two centuries of U.S. history, from the American Revolution to the AI Revolution.
Think of it as a time capsule, your weekly 15-minute guide to 250 years. So first up, how do we even think about the 250th anniversary right now?
To help us frame how we are thinking about this anniversary, we called up people across the country to get a sense of how they are thinking about it. Historians, museum curators, community organizers, teachers, including... My instinct is to call you Mr. Marshall, but I will say hi, John. It's very nice to see you after a long time. My own high school history teacher.
I have to take care of the social obligations I was talking to Ms. James.
Miss J led my high school decathlon team along with Mr. Marshall. Yeah, I was kind of that kid. Anyways.
Oh, make sure you tell her hello from me.
Mr. Marshall, I mean, John, he's an educational consultant now, so he's not actually teaching anymore. But like usual, he dropped some knowledge about the founders I hadn't really thought about.
If you look at the founding fathers, so-called the signers of the Declaration of Independence, They were a very unusual group to be revolutionaries. These were some of the wealthier men in America. They had much more to lose than to gain by a notion of revolution. By signing their names to the Declaration, they were committing treason. And I think one of the things that unfortunately glossed over is these were not wild-eyed radicals.
And John thinks that the anniversary should be focused on the untold stories of the revolution and the sacrifices the so-called founding fathers made. Like how one signer lost all his wealth during the war and died penniless. Or how another refused to recant his position after signing the Declaration, even though it would have saved the lives of his sons, who had been captured by the British. Fascinating, important stories.
What questions should we ask about the American story today?
But as we've explored a lot on the show, that's only one part of America's origin.
The founders were all wealthy, white, landowning men. Some were slave owners, too. And yes, the Declaration of Independence, July 4th, is the birthday of the U.S. in one sense. But remember, just a few years ago, we were having this conversation with Nicole Hannah-Jones about the 1619 Project.
This is a project in the New York Times arguing that slavery is the foundational American institution that our founders were. Many of them, if not most, hypocrites who said they were founding a nation on the idea of freedom while engaging in slavery.
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