As the United States of America is poised to celebrate its semiquincentennial, host Esty Dinur asks, what is the status of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in our nation? Our guest, historian Thomas Richards Jr., says that if people from 1776 were transported to our world, they would be stunned by what they see. On the one hand, the diversity of the US and the fact that every citizen can vote would surprise the founders as sure successes of our democracy. On the other hand, if they looked at Trump or the state of the Constitution, they would find our democracy in real trouble. 

They discuss Richards’ latest book, The Unfinished Business of 1776: Why the American Revolution Never Ended. In it he breaks down the American Revolution into three acts. In the first Act, Americans were starting to talk about their rights and feeling revolutionary fervor. This was the time when Thomas Paine published Common Sense, and it’s the period our country celebrates. Act II is the Revolutionary War itself, which Richards calls “six years of brutality.” Act III is the story of the 1780s, when the country struggled to put itself back together. Throughout the book, Richards finds grounds to celebrate and critique this part of our national history.

Richards says that glorifying the Founding Fathers minimizes the contributions of regular Americans in the revolutionary struggle and minimizes the strife that existed in communities about how to build our government. They also talk about the politicization of history, the story of Judith Sargent Murray, how gerrymandering is an old story, Gabriel’s Rebellion, the Trail of Tears, and more.

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.

Featured image of the cover of The Unfinished Business of 1776.

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