Hello friends and happy holidays. I'm Jeffrey Rosen, President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and welcome to We the People, a weekly show of constitutional debate.

The National Constitution Center is a nonpartisan nonprofit, chartered by Congress, to increase awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.

In this episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward Larson discusses his newest book,

Declaring Independence, Why 1776 Still Matters.

It traces the idea of American independence in that pivotal year and its continued significance today.

This program is presented in partnership with

Citizen Travelers, a nonpartisan civic engagement initiative of Travelers, who's streamed live on

November 24th, 2025. Ed, it is always an honor and a joy to welcome you back to the National

Constitution Center. Jeff, thank you so much.

I thoroughly enjoy every conversation we have together.

Well, there are many books about the Revolutionary War,

but yours is unique because it's both a description

of what happened, blow by blow, two months by two months in 1776.

And you also focus on a key intellectual development, which is the fact that when 1776 began, almost no Patriot Leader supported independence, and by the end of that year, they all flipped. Tell us why you decided to

write this book and what you learned in writing it. Well, of course, thank you for the question.

Of course, the Revolutionary War matters, and that's captured in Ken's Burns, wonderful

television series.

But you go back then and you ever since, what have people mentioned?

They don't say the spirit of the revolution.

They say the spirit of 1776.

Even back then, they talked about the spirit of 1776.

You look at the seal of the United States, which was adopted the next year in 1777.

...