America’s Founding Fathers: A List of Fascinating Facts

The “Founding Fathers” were real men, not those faces chiseled in stone on Mount Rushmore. Here are some little known but fascinating facts you may not know about some of the men who were present at the birth of the nation –including some whose names you may not know!

America’s “Other” Independence Day

America’s birthday is fast approaching. But let’s not wait for July 4th to light the fireworks. There is another Independence Day on the horizon. Juneteenth falls on June 19 each year. It is a holiday whose history was hidden for much of the last century. But as the nation now observes the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s onset, it is a holiday worth recognizing

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Juneteenth-Our-Other-Independence-Day.html#ixzz1PXGpVxj8

“Beam me IN, Scotty” –Library Visits with Author Kenneth C. Davis

AN OPEN LETTER TO LIBRARIANS— “BEAM ME IN, SCOTTY!” Apologies to Captain Kirk and Star Trek.  I know it’s really, “Beam me UP, Scotty.” For more than 20 years, I have been traveling the country to visit libraries, bookstores, museums, schools and librarian conferences to share my love  for history, geography and all the subjects [...]

Teachers–Join the Conversation

On Tuesday May 17 at 4 PM (Eastern Time), I will be participating in my first webinar via the National Council for the Social Studies. Register here   “Bestselling author Ken Davis invites teachers to join in an interactive discussion about teaching American History in more exciting ways. Davis, known for his down-to-earth, non-academic style, [...]

Don’t Know Much About® Thomas Jefferson

Among America’s iconic Founding Fathers, is there a more complicated and contradictory figure than Thomas Jefferson? Scientist, humanist, Enlightenment thinker, writer, architect, politician. He was all these things. The confusion over this genius comes from one basic question: How could the man who wrote, “All Men are Created Equal” and “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit [...]

Don’t Know Much About Mr. Madison

Today March 16, 2011, marks the 260th anniversary of the birth of America’s fourth President, James Madison, also known as “The Father of the Constitution.” While small in stature, and sometimes overshadowed by his more famous Virginian predecessors, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Madison must be considered one of the greatest of the Founding Fathers for the breadth and influence of his contributions.

“We are not enemies but friends.”

“That there are persons in one section or another who seek to destroy the Union at all events and are glad of any pretext to do it I will neither affirm nor deny; but if there be such, I need address no word to them. To those, however, who really love the Union may I [...]

“Sicko Ants on a Crucifix”

Censorship is riding high. It is once again as American as apple pie, assassinations and anti-immigrant vitriol.

Pleading the Fifth (Civics Primer Part 4)

My Civics Primer has been focusing on the Bill of Rights and continues with two more Amendments that deal with the rights of the accused –including perhaps the most famous of all, the Fifth Amendment.

Don’t Know Much About the First Amendment: A Civics Primer

Who is the Vice President? How many Senators are there? How many Supreme Court Justices? A new online survey suggests many Americans can’t answer those Civics 101 questions. That is a point underscored in a New York Times Week in Review article yesterday that points out how many Americans don’t know what the First Amendment [...]