The United States is not a nation like other nations, and it never has been. In July  1776, thirteen separate states, home to three million people with no common  ancestry or identity, stretching along a narrow coastal strip between the Atlantic and the Appalachians, declared their independence as the United States. Could they form a common identity and survive? Today, with more than 350 million people drawn from all over the world, spanning the North American continent, we ask even more what holds us together? Gordon Wood, the premier historian of the American founding, author of The Creation of the American Republic, The Idea of America, Power and Liberty, Revolutionary Characters, and The Purpose of the Past, joins us to talk about this question, which he also addressed in his 2025 talk in accepting the Irving Kristol Award at the American Enterprise Insttitute. Gordon Wood was the guest on our first podcast in 2020; he came back for our 100 th episode in 2022; he returned in 2024 for our 200 th episode. Now he joins us on our 300 th episode, as we  prepare to mark the 250 th anniversary of American Independence, and to help us answer the eternal questions, What is an American? What holds us together?

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