Martin Howard, left, and Stephen Hopkins came to opposing conclusions about their colonial British identities.
Howard: John Singleton Copley via Wikimedia Commons; Hopkins: New York Public Library
What might appear to be common values about shared political and cultural identities can at times serve not as a bridge joining people together but a wedge driving them apart.
A statue of John Witherspoon overlooks a common area at Princeton University.
Oliver Morris via Getty Images
Founding Father and Princeton University president John Witherspoon told American colonists to resist the ‘slavery’ of British rule, even as he held slaves himself.
Anti-Catholic riots, like this one in Philadelphia in 1844, worried Canadians.
H. Bucholzer via Library of Congress
‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’ were the founding principles of the US. In Canada, the goals are ‘Peace, Order, and good Government.’
The first reading of the Declaration of Independence in Boston, July 18, 1776.
Tichnor Brothers Collection, Boston Public Library via Digital Commonwealth
Trump supporters have staked a claim to the US Constitution and the founding era of the country in their battle against what they perceive as an ‘illegitimate’ government.
Residents line up in their cars in late November at a food distribution site in Clermont, Florida, where many are hungry because of the pandemic.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
The absence of effective government policy doesn’t make citizens free. It takes away their power, leaving them less able to act to address their needs. That’s especially clear during the pandemic.
People practice social distancing by standing apart during a news conference in Washington D.C.
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
As the coronavirus spreads far and wide, a political philosopher argues that it is a time to understand that the idea of individual happiness does not work without thinking of the larger good.
A studio group portrait of the Fisk University Jubilee singers.
James Wallace Black/American Missionary Association
Spirituals were created out of the experience of enslaved people in the US. They weren’t songs of anger – but of an abiding belief in the victory of good over evil.
Washington is getting ready for Donald Trump’s big show.
EPA-EFE/Shawn Thew
Martin Luther King Jr. led one of the most successful, nonviolent resistance movements in American history. Here’s a roundup of key coverage from our archive.
Demonstrators calling for justice in a protest march.
Mike Segar/Reuters
King led one of the most successful resistance movements in American history. It was related to his Christian faith. He urged his followers to emulate the love that Christ epitomized.
Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy, Associate Research Professor, Political Science, Co-host of Democracy Works Podcast, Penn State