In an age of increasing cultural diversity at home and of increasing globalization abroad, questions are being agitated about what it means today to be an American. How, in fact, do we identify ourselves, both as individuals and as a people? What do we look up to and revere? To what larger community and ideals are we attached and devoted? For what are we willing to fight and to sacrifice?
A new anthology, What So Proudly We Hail: The American Soul in Story, Speech, and Song, edited by Amy A. Kass, Leon R. Kass, and Diana Schaub, speaks directly to these questions. Using the soul-shaping possibilities of American short stories, political speeches, and songs, it addresses issues of national identity, the American character, the virtues and aspirations of civic life, and the problem of making a national one out of the multicultural many. The book contains a moving speech by Theodore Roosevelt, which powerfully argues that all new immigrants must be assimilated into the idea and practice of “True Americanism.” This symposium revisited Theodore Roosevelt’s speech and the issues it raises. What, if anything, defines “True Americanism” today? Why and for what purposes does it matter?
Required Reading
True Americanism by Theodore Roosevelt
Program and Panel
9:00 a.m.
Registration, breakfast buffet
9:30
Welcome by Yuval Levin, National Affairs
9:35
Panel discussion
11:00
Question-and-answer session
11:30
Adjournment
Media Mentions
Mona Charon in National Review Online – Americanism: Why It Matters
Rick Cohen in The Nonprofit Quarterly – Thinking About True Americanism
To request further information on this event or the Bradley Center, please email or call (202) 974-2424.
