Minding the Campus has launched a new column featuring translated articles from the Observatory of University Ethics, a collective of volunteer academics led by Xavier-Laurent Salvador, a faculty member at the Sorbonne. This collaboration brings a valuable international perspective to our site, offering insights into global higher education issues seen through a French lens, with […]| Minding The Campus
Of course, Paul Revere was a hero as he rowed and rode to alarm the countryside around Boston: “The British are coming! The British are coming!” (“The Regulars are coming out,” the staid historians tell us were his actual words.) So too were the much neglected William Dawes and Samuel Prescott. We owe our independence and our liberty to their pluck and bravery. […]| Minding The Campus
George Washington took command of the Continental Army outside Boston on July 3, 1775. He immediately spent a solid week inspecting the army, and only then wrote to the Continental Congress with his first report. The Continental Army was brave, but it could be made better. Above all, Washington needed money. I find myself already […]| Minding The Campus
On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress took its first bold step toward becoming a nation: it created a national army. Until then, each colony had relied on its own militia. But after the violent clashes at Lexington and Concord, it was clear that isolated efforts wouldn’t be enough. A unified defense would require […]| Minding The Campus
We have a joyful duty to celebrate and commemorate what Washington and all the other Americans of 1776 did to win us our independence.| The American Mind
The Second Continental Congress opened on May 10, 1775. The British had already fired upon Massachusetts militia men at Lexington and Concord. Soon, Congress would make itself into a genuine, revolutionary government by taking on the traditional tasks of borrowing money, printing paper currency, and raising an army, which is what they needed the money […]| Minding The Campus
At sunrise on April 19, 1775, about 80 American townsmen in Lexington, Massachusetts, filed out of Buckman Tavern onto Lexington Green. They were commanded by French and Indian War veteran John Parker. Parker was restrained. His words were, “Stand your ground; don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let […]| Minding The Campus
“Surrender, in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!” That was Ethan Allen gently explaining to the skeleton British garrison at Fort Ticonderoga that their time had come. The capture of the fort on May 10, 1775, by what amounted to a guerrilla American force was not a battle for the ages. […]| Minding The Campus
Author’s Note: This excerpt is from my weekly “Top of Mind” email, sent to subscribers every Thursday. For more content like this and to receive the full newsletter each week, sign up on Minding the Campus’s homepage. Simply go to the right side of the page, look for “SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER, ‘TOP OF MIND,’” and […]| Minding The Campus
As a country, in celebrating resistance, we have lost sight of the important difference between resistance and resolution. For example, even before Donald J. Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2017, plans were afoot to thwart his agenda. Those plans coalesced under the hashtag #Resistance, and included marches, demonstrations, plots for electors to ignore state election […]| Minding The Campus
For months, the Massachusetts Governor’s allies plotted to strip citizens of their arms. Legislators said they sought only to enhance public safety. But they labored as far from the public eye as possible. Then revealing, “debating,” and passing their legislation in the space of one day, they hurried it to the Governor for signature. The […]| Minding The Campus
