America at 250: Why are we like this?
Join Civics 101 as we explore many facets of what it means to be American - and how we got this way - for a special series commemorating the country’s 250th Anniversary.
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How did we get so red, white and blue?
Whether you fly it, wear it or want nothing to do with it, the American flag says a lot in and about the United States. Red, white and blue is far from exclusive to our nation and yet it is very much our brand... and very much branded on anything we can think to put it on. So where did the American obsession with our flag come from?
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How making people wait sparked the American Revolution
Once upon a time, American British colonists were separated from power, decision-making, culture and information by thousands of miles and many weeks. As Helena Yoo-Roth puts it, time “flowed evenly outward” from the homeland.
This is the story of waiting, longing and realizing that time just might be on our side as we approached the American Revolutionary War. Helena Yoo-Roth is the author of the forthcoming American Timelines: Imperial Communications, Colonial Time-Consciousness, and the Coming of the American Revolution.
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What did the world really think about the Declaration of Independence?
For Americans today, it's a treasure. Scripture. The thing that made us. It wasn't always that way, though. This is the story of the Declaration of Independence before it was enshrined in our collective national consciousness. Back when it was a news headline and we had no control what others thought of it.
Our guest is Emily Sneff, author of When the Declaration of Independence was News.
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What can we learn from the American Revolution?
Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein spent nearly a decade making a twelve-hour documentary on the American Revolution. This is what they learned from the thousands of stories and events that resulted in the United States of America. It's a story of world-changing ideas, contradictory figures, myths that do us no good and what it means to be in pursuit of a more perfect union.
You can watch Ken Burns The American Revolution on PBS, PBS.org and the free PBS app.
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