5/20/2025

Last week’s curation at RealClear’s American Civics portal begins with the latest column by Jack Miller Center President Hans Zeiger. At RealClearHistory, he recounts the history of the Second Continental Congress and argues why that legislative body matters a great deal in the American story. For starters, just 14 months after it convened, it declared American independence from the British. “This was the Congress that created the Continental Army on June 14, 1775,” Zeiger adds, “and the next day named a Virginia farmer and veteran of the French and Indian War named George Washington as commander-in-chief.” Famous Americans such as Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and John Hancock were part of the Second Continental Congress. Zeiger writes that that legislative body has been a model not only for how legislatures in America have functioned ever since, but also for how Americans have worked together to achieve remarkable things: “The American way of working together in teams is an extraordinary feature of our cultural life, and an indispensable ingredient in our national success.”

At the American Enterprise Institute, Bejamin Storey and Jenna Silber Storey write about the emerging field of civic thought, which they define as an “academic study dedicated to university level civic-education.” They contend that it “seeks to understand and cultivate the human capacity for thinking and acting as a citizen,” or what the classic political philosophers such as Aristotle would call prudence, or practical wisdom. “To think civically is to think holistically, because political decisions impact many domains of life,” the Storeys write. They conclude by noting that civic thought “can contribute to a healthier civic life” and “make an essential contribution to the university’s efforts to regain public trust.”