by Anton Chaitkin January 6, 2021–Eighty years ago, on January 6, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt summarized America’s mission in the world in his Four Freedoms speech. In subsequent declarations and world agreements, the principles of the Four Freedoms came to be recognized as international law, which civilized nations are […]
Dante Alighieri’s Concept of Statecraft And the Lorenzetti Frescoes in Siena by Bonnie James Jan. 5, 2021–The following article was originally published on June 28, 1999 in The New Federalist newspaper. It is reproduced here with minor editing by the author. The occasion for its republication is the 700th anniversary […]
By Nancy Spannaus Jan. 1, 2021—The transition to a new year is a traditional time for in-depth reflection on the state of our nation and ourselves, and this year, it is more urgent than ever. A huge portion of our citizenry, faced with the horrors of the pandemic, unemployment, opioid […]
By Nancy Spannaus Dec. 24, 2020—There is one gift all Americans[1] have under their proverbial Christmas tree this holiday season. It is a gift bequeathed to us over a period of centuries by those who dedicated their lives to building our nation according to the principles of serving the general […]
In celebration of his 250th birthday By Nancy Spannaus Dec. 15, 2020—Two hundred and fifty years ago, on December 16, 1770, the world welcomed the birth of the man I call the “Composer of Freedom,” Ludwig van Beethoven. Let us celebrate Beethoven today for his historical and ongoing contributions to […]
By Nancy Spannaus November 26, 2020—Contrary to popular culture, Thanksgiving Day in the United States was never just about family. From the time of the Pilgrims, to George Washington, to Abraham Lincoln, it was about humbly expressing our gratitude for surviving as a nation (or a community), and committing ourselves […]
By Nancy Spannaus Nov. 21, 2020—When FDR’s relief expert Harry Hopkins told FDR about the looming emergency for tens of millions of Americans in the winter of 1933-34, FDR authorized action. If nothing were done, Hopkins had said, people would starve en masse. Immediate action was needed, because, as he […]
By Angela Vullo Oct 11, 2020–On February 2 of this year I penned an article quoting Edgar Allan Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death,” an analogy more ominously appropriate now than at the time. And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief […]
By Angela Vullo September 29, 2020–Ask yourself: Would our country exist today if Franklin Roosevelt had not been elected President? During his four terms, President Roosevelt was faced with two foes, one domestic and one foreign, with an ominous overlap between the two. In the same year that Roosevelt was […]
By Nancy Spannaus Jan.11, 2021—Today marks the release of an invaluable video documenting the record of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton’s opposition to slavery. Under the title “The Evidence for Hamilton against Slavery,” independent researcher Marianne Als beautifully synthesizes text, imagery, and music to support her argument that not only is […]
By Angela Vullo December 17, 2020–As Christmas 2020 approaches, images of the same time period in 1932 come to mind: unemployment lines, swamped food banks, eviction notices, and more. The images are only overshadowed by the staggering number of deaths and other effects of the current deadly pandemic. While the […]
Why Did American Slavery Persist?
By Nancy Spannaus January 10, 2021—In a Zoom presentation to a discussion group on Sunday Jan. 3, I began to tackle the question of why, despite enormous activity in favor of abolition in the early period of our Republic, the institution of slavery persisted until the Civil War. My hour-long […]