WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS

July 4, 2026 will mark the 250th anniversary of American independence. It will be an occasion for celebration and for reflection on the origins and present state of the country. Our debates about the founding—its ideals and ambitions, its character and that of the society it launched—easily become divisive, but they also have the potential to help revitalize American society. The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) offers a major intellectual and educational initiative to reacquaint Americans with the foundation of the American project—its promises and perils, successes and failures—and thereby point the way toward the renewal of American principles and institutions.

AEI’s “We Hold These Truths: America at 250” initiative is a multivolume essay series edited by Yuval Levin, Adam J. White, and John Yoo that studies issues central to the founding era through eight distinct themes. Convening leading scholars of history, political science, law, and other disciplines, the initiative tackles key questions to understanding the American Revolution’s legacy: How democratic was our revolution? How central was religious faith and leadership to the course of our political tradition? How might the founding generation’s economic thought inform today’s debates? How has the American understanding of equality, individual rights, and the common good changed over time? And how have we told the story of our founding at different points in our history?

By featuring serious scholarly engagement with these and other questions and controversies, this initiative helps readers appreciate the American tradition in its genuine complexity and build on it. The nation’s 250th birthday is a remarkable opportunity to draw on the past to have better conversations about what our nation stands for, what core commitments it entails and requires of its citizens, and other starting points for thinking fruitfully about our shared public life.