Another to Celebrate our Nation: Franklin Foer on Liberalism

The wonderful Five Books site from the UK is a great source for interviews with reading recommendation. I saved this from a couple of days ago, and it works as we celebrate our nation. What is a liberal? Foer's answer to this question, quoting Herbert Croly,that it is "the use of Hamiltonian means to accomplish Jefersonian aims" is probably as good as it gets. We have to compare this with the classical liberalism of John Stuart Mill and, for instance, the Austrian school of Von Mises and Hayek. An interesting interview & a good choice of books. And, no, liberalism isn't a cuss word.

Jack Rakove on the Constitution

This brief piece by Stanford historian Jack Ravoke is a great 4th of July piece, even if its talking about the Constitution and not the Declaration (the former is more important than the latter in my mind). Great recommendations for reading this most important document.