This page is a work in progress. That is, commentary on some but not all of the books/essays will be found below.

In July, 1741, Jonathan Edwards delivered this sermon to a hard-hearted congregation in Enfield, Massachusetts.

"For better or worse, the sermon for which Edwards is probably most famous—or infamous—is the one preached to the congregation of Enfield, Massachusetts (later Connecticut) in July 1741. Anthologized in high school and college textbooks, Sinners represents in many persons’ minds the bleak, cruel, and hell-bent outlook of Edwards and his Puritan predecessors. But of course such a representation is only a caricature, for Sinners, if it represents anything, stands for only a small part of Edwards’s view of the relationship between humankind and God. As a specially crafted awakening sermon, Sinners was aimed at a particularly hard-hearted congregation. But, at the same time, the awakening sermon and all it expressed—the awful weight of sin, the wrath of an infinitely holy God, and the unexpectedness of the moment when God will execute justice—were integral to Edwards’s theology. This sermon, therefore, deserves to be studied and meditated on for its ownsake, but also as part of a larger vision of the spiritual life." This quote was taken from The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University. See http://edwards.yale.edu/major-works/sinners-in-the-hands-of-an-angry-god.

This sermon should be set in the context of the Great Awakening, a religious revival in Europe and the colonies in the 1730s and 40s. The Great Awakening was an attempt to resurrect religious piety in an Age of Enlightenment and should be considered to be the first mass movement in U.S. History. Edwards's sermon is the single most important sermon that came out of the Great Awakening in the colonies. Presbyterian Scot-Irish preachers started the movement in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and then it spread to the Puritan (Congregational) and Baptist churches in New England.

Arguably the most important essay written in U.S. History. Thomas Paine published this treasonous pamphlet in January 1776, nine months after the war broke out and when the issue of independence was being discussed. The pamphlet was wildly successful in galvanizing many people to think in terms of the practical good that could come from abandoning monarchy and declaring independence. Six months later, the Second Continental Congress declared that the colonies were independent.

The British finally got around to indicting him for treason, not for his role in the American Revolution but the French Revolution!!

This is the most significant work in American political science. These eighty-five essays, written in haste as editorials in New York newspapers and arguing for ratification of the Constitution, represent the Holy Grail of the Constitution. They represent what the people in Philadephia intended when they crafted the basic law of the land. "Legislative intent" is the Holy Grail, and we have it with the Federalist.

You could argue that the Federalist is the most authoritative work ever written on republican government. From a critical thinking perspective, you should be asking the question, "Why is the Federalist so authoritative?

Drop this book into the context of "Cultural Nationalism," meaning the awakening of an American voice in the literary world. With Cooper (and Irving and Bryant), we see an American experience apart from Europe. In an even larger context, drop "Cultural Nationalism" into a discussion of Nationalism in general.

Alexis de Tocqueville traveled for nine months throughout the U.S. in 1831-32. He wrote about American society and politics in two volumes (1835 and 1840). His brilliant analysis of the U.S. democratic and social systems remains a classic read for many students. Importantly, he addresses the ways in which Blacks and Native Americans are mistreated.

Douglass, a former slave, wrote this book that had a great impact on the abolitionist movement.

This is one of the most influential writings in U.S. History and has been used by many who were inspired to engage in non-violent resistance to government authority. Martin Luther King said: "No other person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than Henry David Thoreau. As a result of his writings and personal witness, we are the heirs of a legacy of creative protest."

The Origin of Species is not where the action is. The book published twelve years after Origin is where the controversy can be found. That is, in 1871, Darwin published The Descent of Man. Note what he says in Chapter XXI:
"The main conclusion here arrived at, and now held by many naturalists who are well competent to form a sound judgment is that man is descended from some less highly organised form. The grounds upon which this conclusion rests will never be shaken, for the close similarity between man and the lower animals in embryonic development, as well as in innumerable points of structure and constitution, both of high and of the most trifling importance,- the rudiments which he retains, and the abnormal reversions to which he is occasionally liable,- are facts which cannot be disputed. They have long been known, but until recently they told us nothing with respect to the origin of man. Now when viewed by the light of our knowledge of the whole organic world, their meaning is unmistakable. The great principle of evolution stands up clear and firm, when these groups or facts are considered in connection with others, such as the mutual affinities of the members of the same group, their geographical distribution in past and present times, and their geological succession. It is incredible that all these facts should speak falsely. He who is not content to look, like a savage, at the phenomena of nature as disconnected, cannot any longer believe that man is the work of a separate act of creation. He will be forced to admit that the close resemblance of the embryo of man to that, for instance, of a dog- the construction of his skull, limbs and whole frame on the same plan with that of other mammals, independently of the uses to which the parts may be put- the occasional re-appearance of various structures, for instance of several muscles, which man does not normally possess, but which are common to the Quadrumana- and a crowd of analogous facts- all point in the plainest manner to the conclusion that man is the co-descendant with other mammals of a common progenitor."

Christians who adopt a literal interpretation of the creation story in Genesis have a problem with this idea. Other Christians are able to integrate a generalized understanding of evolution with their faith and do not see a problem.

The Rev. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick preached this sermon to the League of Nations in 1924. He speaks to the horror of World War I and the bankruptcy of those who believe that there can be a just war in the future.

Dr. Martin Luther King wrote this letter on April 16, 1963 in response to religious leaders who were advising a slower pace to the civil rights movement. This is one of the most important "letters" in U.S. History.

On July 4, 1965, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King delivered this sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia.

King delivered this sermon on April 3, 1968, in Memphis Tennessee. The sermon ends with: "I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you."

The Rev. Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968