The Us@250 Syllabus: A Guide to Celebrating America’s 250th Anniversary

This summer, the United States turns 250. Against the backdrop of widening political divisions, the anniversary offers more than a commemoration. It is an opportunity to take stock of our progress as a nation, reckon with our complicated past, and remember what binds us together: our shared hope for the well-being of our country and its people.

Since its launch in 2022, New America’s Us@250 initiative has been grappling with these three themes of pride, reckoning, and aspiration. With the semiquincentennial on the horizon, we’ve gathered a collection of what we might consider required reading (and watching and listening) for a rich, nuanced understanding of the United States, and of us. As cultural custodians and historians, we believe that national anniversaries, at their best, are vehicles for meaningful conversations—a way to recognize our past and recalibrate for the future.

Below you’ll find a set of diverse resources, from the Declaration of Independence and President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech to Whitney Houston’s iconic 1991 performance of the “Star-Spangled Banner” and critical readings on labor, suffrage, slavery, immigration, small towns, and more. Taken together, they ask the question this anniversary demands we answer: Who truly belongs, and who gets to thrive?

Pride

Moments, ideas, and cultural expressions that define the nation’s founding vision and evolving identity.

• Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, Danielle S. Allen, Liveright Publishing
• “Civil Religion in America,” Robert N. Bellah, Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution, Jill Lepore, Liveright Publishing
• “Anthem of Freedom: How Whitney Houston Remade ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’” Cinque Henderson, The New Yorker
• Preserving Nature in the National Parks: A History, Richard West Sellars, Yale University Press
• American Like Me, America Ferrera, Gallery Books
• Reclaiming Patriotism in an Age of Extremes, Steven B. Smith, Yale University Press
• “I, Too,” Langston Hughes, The Collected Works of Langston Hughes
• “The Star-Spangled Banner,” sung by Whitney Houston

Reckoning

A confrontation with the policies, myths, and injustices that complicate the national story.

• A Biography of a Mountain: The Making and Meaning of Mount Rushmore, Matthew Davis, St. Martin’s Press
• “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant,” Jose Antonio Vargas, The New York Times Magazine
• Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor, Steven Greenhouse, Alfred A. Knopf
• “The Idea of America,” Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times Magazine
• Suffrage: Women’s Long Battle for the Vote, Ellen Carol DuBois, Simon & Schuster
• “How Native Nations Shaped the Revolution,” Ned Blackhawk, The Atlantic
• How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, Clint Smith, Little, Brown, and Company
• “America’s Long History of Scapegoating its Asian Citizens,” Nina Strochlic, National Geographic
• The Civil War, Ken Burns, PBS

Aspiration

Visions of the future shaped by demographic change, civic participation, and innovation.

• The Next America, Paul Taylor, PublicAffairs
• “The Hill We Climb,” Amanda Gorman, Inaugural Poem
• Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship, Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders, MIT Press
• “Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961,” John F. Kennedy, The White House
• The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap, Stephanie Koontz, Basic Books
• “Citizenship Matters: Conceptualizing Belonging in an Era of Fragile Inclusions,” Jennifer M. Chacón, UC Davis Law Review
• Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America, John Lewis, Legacy Lit
• Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America, James Fallows and Deborah Fallows, Pantheon Books
• President Obama Delivers Remarks on the 50th Anniversary of the Selma Marches, Barack Obama, The White House