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Hi, iHeart discover music, radio and podcast you'll love.

On this episode of Newt's World, on this July 4th Sunday, I wanted to take the opportunity

to reflect on the significance of Independence Day. From the year was established in 1776 with

the signing of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Condental Congress in Philadelphia

to our modern-day celebrations that include backyard barbecues and fireworks displays.

My guest is a longtime friend and fellow historian, Alan Gelsal. He is director of the James

Madison Program initiative on politics and statesmanship and senior research scholar

in the Council of Humanities, sorry, and senior research scholar in the Council of the

Humanities at Princeton University. He is also the best-selling author of Gettysburg and

is a new book coming out the September Robert E. Lee I like. I have never talked to him

without learning an immense amount.

Alan, I'm so glad you could join us. And I want to start, Alan, because I know you're

one of those very rare people. You actually sort of have the history inside you live it.

You feel it. It's not just some abstract knowledge. And so I'm curious. If you go back to

say January, February, March, 1775, how much do you think they were in the process of

really talking themselves into moving towards independence and how much were they just caught

up in a dialogue that wasn't quite clear yet?

...