About this episode

The episode discusses the political and cultural implications of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in the United States.

In the bicentennial summer of 1976, the United States staged what was, by some measures, the largest single celebration in the country’s history. Tall ships in New York harbor. Fireworks over the Mall. Specially-minted bicentennial quarters. A made-for-TV reconciliation after Vietnam and Watergate, after the assassinations and the riots and the burnings of the long sixties. The country told itself, for a few weeks at least, that it was still the country it remembered being. Fifty years on, the United States is preparing to mark a quarter-millennium since the Declaration of Independence, and it cannot even agree on who is meant to be in charge of the party. There is the official commemoration, America 250, which has been preparing for this moment since 2016, when Congress set up a statutorily bipartisan commission to do the work. And there is, as of last year, a rival: Freedom 250, a Trump White House task force set up by executive order and run by the president and his appointees, which has been quietly siphoning funds and branding from the official commission and staging its own splashier, more overtly partisan events. Meanwhile, the historic sites (Mount Vernon, Monticello…

People in this episode

Host: Adam Smith

Topics covered

• bicentennial celebrations
• politics of commemoration
• American history
• national identity
• partisan events
• historic sites

Keywords

• 250th anniversary
• America 250
• Freedom 250
• commemoration
• national celebration
• politics
• historic sites
• Vietnam
• Watergate

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: America 250, Freedom 250

Places: United States, New York harbor, the Mall, Mount Vernon, Monticello, Independence Hall, Boston’s Freedom Trail

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Last Best Hope? podcast page.