Originally published on June 27, 2026 (Episode 461)
Introduction
On July 4, 1777, in Boston, the Reverend William Gordon gave one of the first July 4th orations in American history—certainly the first to become a pamphlet. For over a century these orations were a feature of the national festival, “an essential annual occasion for debating the present and future of American politics.” In the first century of American independence over one hundred thousand such speeches were delivered, about 2,500 of which survive in pamphlets. They were essential, until suddenly they were not.
How these orations surveyed the past and looked forward to the future is the focus of my guest Nathan Perl-Rosenthal’s new book The Long Revolution: Creating a United States after 1776. These speeches are a mine from which he extracts visions, anxieties, and imaginings, ranging from William Gordon’s speech all the way to the fizzled attempts of President Gerald Ford to continue the tradition in 1976.
One of the most striking discoveries in this conversation is that these Fourth of July speeches were rarely complacent celebrations. Again and again, speakers warned that the republic remained fragile, incomplete, and endangered. The American Revolution, they insisted, was not a finished event but an ongoing project. To read these speeches is to encounter generations of Americans who regarded themselves not as heirs to a settled achievement, but as participants in a continuing experiment.
About the Guest
Nathan Perl-Rosenthal is Professor of History, French and Italian, and Law at the University of Southern California. He is also the author of The Age of Revolutions–And the Generations Who Made It. His research focuses on political culture, revolution, and the creation of modern states and identities.
For Further Investigation
Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, The Long Revolution: Creating a United States after 1776 (Basic Books, 2026)
—, The Age of Revolutions–And the Generations Who Made It (Basic Books, 2024)
—, Citizen Sailors: Becoming American in the Age of Revolution (Harvard, 2015)
Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”
Andrew Burstein, America’s Jubilee: How in 1826 a Generation Remembered 50 Years of Independence (Knopf, 2001)
Len Travers, Celebrating the Fourth: Independence Day and the Rites of Nationalism in the Early Republic (University of Massachusetts Press, 1999)
4th of July Orations: A Century of American Oratory, 1777-1876
Related Episodes
Revolutionary Age: Nathan Perl-Rosenthal on the Atlantic World in Upheaval
Men on Horseback: David Bell on charismatic leaders, literally riding white horses, in an age of democratic revolution
The Great Atlantic Freedom Conspiracy: Micah Alpaugh on revolutionary tactics and adaptations in the Atlantic World
Tags
America 250; American Revolution; Fourth of July; Nathan Perl-Rosenthal; Historical Memory; Early Republic; Civil War; Frederick Douglass; Political Culture; Historical Thinking
