Among the many comments received about the early selections collected in The Heath Anthology of American Literature, the plaintive comment, even from early Americanists, about the number of so-called new writers represented there strikes me as most honest and forthright. Indeed, more than a few coll...

Part II Theodore Roosevelt, vice presidential candidate 1900, campaigned furiously for the Republican Party for which William McKinley was its presidential candidate. Roosevelt gave speeches in 567 cities, in 24 states, and over 3 million people saw him in person. He was a major factor in keeping M...

A Latin statement commonly used in the Middle Ages to define the purpose of government reads: servitium propter jura, non potestas praeter jura. This succinct statement translates to mean, "service to and for the sake of rights, not a power exercised beyond or outside of rights." This ag...

In 1798, there was a young Republican publicist named Benjamin Franklin Bache, the editor of the Philadelphia Aurora, who was known as "Lightning Rod, Junior" because he was the grandson of Benjamin Franklin and was known for his shocking phraseology. Impetuous, harsh, narrow-minded and d...

Early in his life, former United States President Thomas Jefferson wrote on his gravestone: "Here was buried, Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of Independence of the Statue of Virginia for religious freedom, Father of the University of Virginia." He wrote these texts at the beginning ...