“History is a guide to navigation in perilous times,” said the late historian David McCullough in his commencement address to the Wesleyan University Class of 1984. “History is who we are and why we are the way we are.” As we prepare to observe the nation’s 250th birthday on July 4, we are living in “perilous times” indeed, and this call to study our history—not just for its own sake—feels highly pertinent.
Should you want a syllabus for the course, you could do worse than to thumb through the pages of our new special issue, dedicated to the theme of “America at 250.” Here we highlight some of the many new and recent books that seek to honestly address U.S. history in all its complexity. A great starting place is American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union (Random House, Feb. 17), in which Jon Meacham weaves a tapestry of American writings, from Abigail Adams and Frederick Douglass to Ida B. Wells and Fannie Lou Hamer, emphasizing the crucial role that protest has always played in our national life. Our review called the collection “evocative and impeccably curated,” and you can read our interview with Meacham, an award-winning historian and biographer with a refreshing clarity about the American experiment.
Elsewhere in the issue, our editors have drawn up their own lists of essential semiquincentennial reads in nonfiction, children’s books, young adult books, and audiobooks. Plus, we hear from a range of authors, including Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Christy Mihaly, and Taylor Cassidy, who tell us about their new works and reflect on the United States at this crossroads moment.
To better understand American history, I’ve often turned to the work of McCullough (1933-2022), knowing that I can depend upon him as a clear-eyed and amiable guide through the events of the past. So it’s a real treat to have a new collector’s edition of 1776, his vital narrative of that historical turning point, first published in 2005. The new edition (Simon & Schuster, May 5) boasts a slipcase emblazoned with the words that open this column, pictorial endpapers, sprayed edges, and a ribbon bookmark; it would make a handsome gift to oneself or a fellow history buff. Our starred review called it “a master storyteller’s character-driven account of a storied year in the American Revolution.”
Ken Burns, through his widely seen television documentaries, has been a similarly reliable history instructor. But don’t sleep on the companion books written with historian Geoffrey C. Ward. The American Revolution: An Intimate History (Knopf, 2025) builds upon the foundation of the PBS series that aired last fall; it’s a pleasure to flip through its lavishly illustrated pages, but the history itself is hard-headed and unsentimental. As Burns writes in his preface, “The Revolution becomes even more inspirational when the distractions of mythology and cloying nostalgia are replaced, not with unforgiving revisionism, but with the sometimes difficult truths of what actually happened.” Our reviewer called it a “well-written and thoughtful history.” Whatever you do this July 4th, make a good book part of your observance.
Tom Beer is the editor-in-chief.
