Unfinished Business of 1776

Thomas Richards Jr. teaches history at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia and holds a PhD in history from Temple University. The author of Breakaway Americas: The Unmanifest Future of the Jacksonian United States and The Unfinished Business of 1776 (The New Press), he lives in Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania, where George Washington once camped.

Praise for The Unfinished Business of 1776:“Incisive and lively. . . . This book doesn’t just reproduce facts; it sparks reflection on what liberty and justice mean, then and now. Richards’s scholarship and vibrant prose create a meaningful guide for those seeking to understand the United States’ ongoing debates with its founding ideals.”—Library Journal (starred review)“Timed to coincide with the two-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Richards’ seminal work posits that the ideals enumerated in our nation’s founding documents have never been and may never be fully realized . . . voluminously researched and meticulously constructed.”—Booklist “Thomas Richards’s brilliant book reminds us how Americans fought and died over the legacies of the American Revolution and why liberals need to continue the fight for our revolutionary legacy today.”—Erik Loomis, author of A History of America in Ten Strikes and Organizing America “Authoritative yet entertaining—and historically spot-on. A sweeping account of how everyday Americans made the promise of the Revolution work for them.”—Ray Raphael, author of A People’s History of the American Revolution and Constitutional Myths “We tend to think of the aftermath of the Revolutionary War as a tranquil time of settlement—a permanent defeat of the English crown, the road to a solid Constitution, a peaceful citizenry pleased with the outcome. In this illuminating book, Thomas Richards Jr. shows us how pressing questions about the meaning and survival of the new republic plagued the founders and never went away. The politics of today, uncomfortably enough, bear a distinct echo of 1776.”—Tom Zoellner, National Book Critics Circle Award–winning author of Island on Fire and The Road Was Full of Thorns “Thomas Richards understands that Americans have never stopped battling over the meaning and substance of the American Revolution. Telling the story through a diverse cast of individuals who encompass an expansive geography and who illustrate lasting revolutionary ideas and issues is a terrific idea and it hasn’t been done in anything like this way.”—David Waldstreicher, author of Slavery’s Constitution and The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley “The Unfinished Business of 1776 celebrates the Declaration of Independence and American Revolution as a promise to future generations.”—Books for Congress“A timely and provocative book.”—The New Republic