Welcome back to the Ten Blocks podcast. This is Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal.

Joining me on the show today is

Wilfred McLeigh. Bill is the Victor Davis-Hansson Chair in classical history and Western civilization at Hillsdale

College. He's the author of several books, including Land of Hope, an Invitation to the Great American

Story, and an accompanying young reader's edition.

He's written several essays for City Journal over the years, and his work appears frequently

in both scholarly and popular publications, including the Wilson Quarterly, the Wall Street

Journal, National Review, First Things, and many, many other publications. Today, we're going to discuss America's

national identity and our connection to the past. So, Bill, great to talk with you, and thanks

for coming on, 10 blocks. Thank you, Brian. It's really, it's an honor. I'm a great admirer of

City Journal and all that it's done, and this is just an extension of

its wonderful mission. Well, thank you, Bill. So you published Land of Hope, which I encourage

readers to pick up. It's really a terrific history. That was right before the pandemic, I think,

so 2019. So it's been out there

for a few years now. It's viewed by many, especially those who are not on the left as a kind

of corrective history to Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States. But it also seems clear that you've

had other broader motivations for writing it, from the need for a readable narrative history

for students to a desire, which I think is very important to reinstall, reinstill,

recreate a kind of civic connection between readers and the nation's history. So I wonder,

you know, tell our listeners a bit about how you came to write, land of hope, and what approach

has guided you in doing so. Yeah, well, it wasn't something I particularly wanted to do,

because as anybody who has, who's listening to this,

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