Daily Insights
2026
►Why George Washington Toasted King George III
In January 1776—months after Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill—General George Washington and his officers were still toasting King George III at dinner.
So how does that make sense?
As 1776 began, American Patriots still saw their fight as a rebellion to secure their British rights. They did not yet see their struggle as a revolution for independence from Britain.
Then came Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense.”
Before “Common Sense,” no one in the Continental Congress had called for independence. Afterward, Americans openly talked of independence. Washington even had “Common Sense” read to his troops.
Within weeks, Paine’s nearly 50-page pamphlet sold out and was reprinted across the colonies. Within months, some 120,000 copies were circulating.
Dr. Harvey Kaye, a scholar of Thomas Paine, explains how Paine helped Americans begin seeing themselves as Americans rather than British subjects.
Watch this segment at 47:39 in my interview with Dr. Harvey Kaye (University of Wisconsin – Green Bay).
►Their American Dream Was Dying!
The “Affordability Crisis” That Fueled Revolution
Imagine reaching adulthood and realizing you cannot afford the life your parents had.
You cannot buy land. You cannot establish a home. You cannot build the future you were raised to expect.
America in 2026? Yes.
But also Concord, Massachusetts, on the eve of the American Revolution.
Dr. Robert Gross calls it an “18th-century affordability crisis.” Young people were forced to leave because their hometown could no longer offer them a future. Their parents could not pass down the world they had inherited.
Long before British troops marched, something in American life had already broken.
Watch this segment at 39:53 in my interview with Dr. Gross (UConn).
►China’s Connection to the U.S. Constitution
The story of early America’s trade with China is much bigger—and far more consequential—than importing tea and porcelain. It is also about how the newly independent American states confronted the urgent need for a strong central government capable of supporting international trade.
In the 1780s, the China trade helped make the case that the newly independent states, having just won the Revolution, needed a new system—because the Articles of Confederation had led to weakened diplomacy and fragmented trade policies that left American merchants at a disadvantage abroad.
In other words, the China trade became part of the story of the U.S. Constitution.
Watch this segment at 48:59 in my interview with Dr. Dael Norwood (University of Delaware).
►Neighbors, Not Foes
The Boston Massacre wasn’t a clash between strangers.
British soldiers had spent 17 months among Bostonians—they had lived in their homes, dined with them, befriended them, and even married Bostonians. Some British soldiers knew Bostonians in the crowd that night and chatted with neighbors on the way to the scene.
Watch at 10:10 in my interview with Dr. Serena Zabin (Carleton College).
►American Common Sense
Why should Britain—a small island—rule America—a continent?
Thomas Paine turned his “Common Sense” into a radical ‘common sense’ argument: that ordinary people could understand politics—and govern themselves.
Watch this at 34:08 in my interview with Dr. Sophia Rosenfeld (UPenn).
