In this edition of the Reading Wheel Review, Dr. Jordan Ballor, executive director of First Liberty’s Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy, interviews Dr. Matthew Spalding, the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government and the Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College’s Washington, D.C., campus. Their discussion focuses
On July 4, 2026, all patriotic Americans will mark the 250th anniversary of our country’s birth with fireworks displays, festive parades, and salutes to Old Glory. The semiquincentennial presents a unique occasion to celebrate and reflect on the immense gift that America’s founding generation gave us. That generation declared independence
What does it mean to be an American? Once a fringe conversation that remained in online spaces, the assumption that American identity is primarily creedal no longer holds nearly as much weight as it used to. Many on the New Right now advocate a “blood and soil” view of American
I am not sure when it was exactly that I fell in love with my country. We each have our own story. I was raised in a small farming community in rural Central California. It was a great place to grow up, though there was not much that connected us