Opinion

Age Before Duty

Darrin M. McMahon / History News Network Apr 20, 2024 How did the founders think about age and its relationship to rights and power? Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

Three Grievances America’s Founders Would Have Had Against Trump

Juan Cole / Informed Comment Jul 4, 2018 In the section of the Declaration of Independence on grievances, there are a number of paragraphs that resonate with today’s politics. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

American History for Truthdiggers: Flowering or Excess of Democracy? (The 1780s)

Maj. Danny Sjursen / Truthdig Apr 21, 2018 What lessons did the founding generation take from the American Revolution, and why do we forget the early republican experiments? Dig deeper ( 20 Min. Read )

American History for Truthdiggers: Whose Revolution? (1775-1783)

Maj. Danny Sjursen / Truthdig Apr 7, 2018 For slaves and Native Americans, the Revolution wasn’t “radical”: It was one more colossal effort to enforce Western conservative values and preserve the privileges of whites and the rich. Dig deeper ( 16 Min. Read )

A Second Amendment for the 21st Century

Paul Olague / Truthdig Mar 28, 2018 James Madison, who wrote the now hotly contested amendment, no doubt would have a thing or two to say about how it has been interpreted. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

A Lesson on Slavery for White America

Paul Street / Truthdig Aug 22, 2017 The more we know and understand our racist past, the more we can change history for the better—in the present and future. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )

We Disrupted the Supreme Court to Protest Money in Politics

By Matt Kresling Jul 20, 2017 We'll be sentenced Monday for an act of civil disobedience that was neither violent nor angry. Rather it was a plea to government to be responsive to the people. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

Noam Chomsky: Why Trump Is Pushing the Doomsday Clock to the Brink of Midnight

By David Gibbs / AlterNet Apr 3, 2017 The linguist and political commentator discusses the U.S. president, Russia, history and the future in a recent interview. (Pictured, two scientists at a Jan. 26 news conference.) Dig deeper ( 20 Min. Read )

Have We Been Misreading the Declaration of Independence?

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Jul 4, 2014 An errant ink splotch or a genuine period? A scholar says an official transcript of the Declaration of Independence contains an error that has led many Americans to misinterpret the document for almost two centuries. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Freedom and ‘Our Sacred Honor’

E.J. Dionne Jr. / Truthdig Jul 4, 2013 We find ourselves, 237 years after the Founders declared us a new nation, in a season of discontent, even surliness, about the experiment they launched. We are sharply divided over the very meaning our founding documents, and we are more likely to invoke the word "we" in the context of "us" versus "them" than in the more capacious sense that includes every single American. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Thomas Jefferson Against Slavery

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Feb 17, 2013 At the end of his life, Thomas Jefferson regretted much about what the country he helped build had become. Today, midway through Black History Month, we turn an eye to his repudiation of slavery in a passage that failed to make it into the final draft of the Declaration of Independence. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

What Our Declaration Really Said

E.J. Dionne Jr. / Truthdig Jul 4, 2011 Our nation confronts a challenge this Fourth of July that we face but rarely: We are at odds over the meaning of our history and why, to quote our Declaration of Independence, "governments are instituted." Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )