America

JACK D. WARREN, JR. (ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA) is a native of Washington, DC, and a historian whose work focuses on the enduring achievements of the American Revolution. He is the Editor-in-Chief of The American Crisis, and author of Freedom: The Enduring Importance of the American Revolution, America’s First Veterans, and The Presidency of George Washington.Warren served on the faculty of the University of Virginia, where he was an editor of The Papers of George Washington. He was subsequently executive director of The Society of the Cincinnati and the founding director of The American Revolution Institute. He is a longtime member of the Civil War Trust.He and his wife, Janet, live and work in the Washington D.C. metro area.To Learn more go to AmericanIdeal.org.

• Table of Contents to AMERICA: 250 YEARS OF FREEDOM by Jack D. Warren, Jr.FOREWORDPROLOGUE: The Declaration of Independence: We declared our independence at a time when freedom as we understand it was barely imagined. The Declaration is a guide to the ideals that inspire and sustain our freedom.Chapter 1 Free and Independent: Declaring independence didn’t make us independent. We had to fight and win a war against one of the world’s great powers to be free.Chapter 2 The Consent of the Governed: Our revolutionary generation established republican governments empowered by the people and answerable to their will.Chapter 3 Citizens: At a time when nearly everyone in the world was the subject of a king, Americans were citizens, responsible for themselves in democratic governance. Chapter 5 Liberty: Liberty—the absence of restraint—released the energy of the American people. The new nation grew, built, and created at an astonishing rate.Chapter 6 One People: By the middle of the nineteenth century shared principles, history, culture, and experience had shaped a distinctive American national identity — an identity defined by ideals, unique in the world.Chapter 7 Created Equal: The rapid expansion of freedom made slavery—an evil inherited from our colonial past—a moral dilemma. It also encouraged women to demand the political rights enjoyed by men. Chapter 8 Union: The nation could not survive half slave and half free, and fought a civil war to resolve the problem and preserve the union.  Chapter 9 Migrations Hither: Freedom attracted millions of immigrants from the Old World who were proud to commit themselves to our ideals. Americans peopled the continent and reached beyond.Chapter 10 Pursuit of Happiness: By the early twentieth century freedom had created the conditions for unprecedented prosperity and creative accomplishments.Chapter 11 The Powers of the Earth: In the twentieth century the United States defended the ideal of freedom against the most dangerous tyrannies in modern history.Chapter 12 Unalienable Rights: The realization of natural and civil rights without regard to race resolved one of the nation’s longstanding challenges.Chapter 13 The Course of Human Events: American ingenuity has shaped and inspired the modern world. American ideals have promoted the spread of freedom. American arms have sustained freedom in a dangerous age.EPILOGUE: Our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor: After 250 years, what must we do to fulfill the ideals of our Declaration of Independence?