“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” These fundamental truths shape American identity. Ted Widmer explores their origins and impact in The Living Declaration: A Biography of America’s Founding Text¸ and joins us to talk about the Declaration as it was written, and how it has impacted Americans and the world since 1776. Drawing on speeches and writings from the long span of history—John Locke, the Natick Town Meeting, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, the Seneca Falls movement, Huey Long, Calvin Coolidge, H.L. Mencken, Emma Goldman, the Black Panther Party, the Tea Party, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, and others—we
discuss the enduring importance of the Declaration of Independence.

https://www.loa.org/books/the-living-declaration-a-biography-of-americas-founding-text/

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Before the ink was dry, the Declaration was already on its way to the people. In this special Independence Day episode of the Revolution 250 Podcast, recorded for America's 250th Birthday on July 4, 2026, Professor Robert Allison welcomes master printer Gary Gregory of the historic Edes & Gill Print Shop to explore how the words that founded a nation were transformed into printed broadsides and carried into towns across Massachusetts.

Their conversation centers on the remarkable story of the official Massachusetts printing of the Declaration by Ezekiel Russell in Salem, the broadside ordered distributed to every parish in the Commonwealth, where it was read aloud to congregations, entered into town records, and shared in one of the first truly statewide civic moments in American history. Gregory also offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the painstaking craft of recreating the 1776 document using period presses, hand-set type, traditional paper, and the same printing techniques employed two and a half centuries ago. Find out more in Haverhill's Museum of Printing!

Released on the 250th anniversary of American independence, this episode celebrates not only the ideals expressed in the Declaration, but also the printers, craftsmen, and ordinary citizens who helped carry those ideals from a single sheet of paper into communities across a new nation. It is a fitting reflection on how words became action, how print became revolution, and why the Declaration continues to inspire Americans 250 years later.

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Why did the British place so much importance on Charleston? How did a string of talented British commanders nearly crush the Revolution in the South, and why did they ultimately fail?

In this episode of the Revolution 250 Podcast, Professor Robert J. Allison is joined by historian Ken Scarlett, author of Victory Day: Winning American Independence, for a sweeping discussion of the Southern Campaigns that ultimately decided the outcome of the Revolutionary War.

Beginning with the British strategy to capture Charleston and restore royal authority in the southern colonies, Allison and Scarlett trace the campaigns led by commanders including Sir Henry Clinton, Lord Cornwallis, Banastre Tarleton, and Lord Rawdon. They examine why Charleston was the strategic prize of the South, how its fall in 1780 reshaped the war, and why British success there ultimately proved fleeting.

The conversation also highlights the remarkable American leaders who turned the tide. General Nathanael Greene's brilliant strategy of exhausting rather than destroying the British army, combined with the relentless efforts of partisan commanders Francis Marion, Thomas Sumter, and Andrew Pickens, transformed the Southern backcountry into one of the most contested theaters of the Revolution. Their campaigns forced the British to fight for every mile of territory and helped set Cornwallis on the path that ultimately ended at Yorktown.

From Charleston Harbor to the Carolina backcountry, this episode explores the commanders, campaigns, and hard-fought decisions that secured American independence and reminds us why the story of the Revolution cannot be fully understood without the South.

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