Prof. Balcerski shares the surprisingly circuitous history of America's celebration of the 4th of July. 

America's Independence Day has been on the news. One reason is that President Biden set a goal for at least 70% of Americans to get one Covid vaccine shot, which he did not achieve. Another reason, a more complicated one, is that some have brought focus to the importance and meaning of the 4th of July, which doesn't seem all that out of place, given last year's pandemic crisis, BLM protests, a contested presidential election and the January 6th insurrection. As it turns out, the history of the 4th of July is not that straightforward. For example, it took about a century for the recognition of our Independence Day as a federal holiday. And for some 80 years after the Civil war, some parts of the South, including Vicksburg, did not celebrate the 4th of July. It took WWII to create a new sense of nationalism, including the national celebration of the 4th of July.  

To better understand the history of our Independence Day, we spoke with Professor, an associate professor of history at Eastern Connecticut State University, where he teaches classes on early American history, African American history, and US presidents and first ladies. In addition, Professor Balcerski is a frequent contributor to CNN, the Washington Post, NBC, and other news organizations. This week he published an opinion on CNN, in which he talked about this week's release of C-SPAN's 2021 Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership. In addition to the fact he was one of the 142 historians who participated in this survey, he also authored a book on President James Buchanan… which is highly relevant to the C-SPAN survey because James Buchanan is ranked as our country's worst president. 

The link to Prof. Balcerski's academic homepage: https://www.easternct.edu/faculty-directory/balcerski.html