You Are In: USINFO > Topics > U.S. Life, Culture and History > Holidays > July 4th
 
 

Featured Articles for the 4th of July

U.S. Independence Day, commonly referred to as the Fourth of July, commemorates the anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence from England. These articles provide a snapshot of some of the diverse ways in which Americans have celebrated the Fourth of July, and explore some of the history surrounding the Fourth.

The articles are either in the public domain or have been copyright cleared for reproduction and republication outside the United States. Copyright requirements, if any exist, are listed with the individual articles.

New for 2007

Fireworks Companies Working Around the Clock for July Fourth

Fourth of July Music Reflects U.S. History, Diversity

Making Sense of the Fourth of July
By Pauline Maier, 1997
Maier discusses the history of the Fourth of July, which celebrates the Declaration of Independence rather than the actual independence from Britain, and how the Declaration came to usurp a role that Americans normally delegated to bills of rights.

Celebrating the Fourth of July
By Marian I. Doyle, 1998
After the American Revolution, towering bonfires were lit the night before the Fourth and bells, guns and cannons broke the morning.

Room for Everyone
By Sherry Simpson, 2005
Simpson recounts celebrating Independence Day in Esther, Alaska, a tiny community just a few miles south of Fairbanks. What makes this spectacle especially fun, says Simpson, is the chance to see friends and neighbors acting silly.

Patriot Alley
By Edward E. Ericson, Jr., 1997
A traditional Fourth of July parade is the highlight of a neighborhood celebration that continues to attract strong interest in the 1990s. Ericson chronicles the history of the celebration, which began in 1934.

Home of the Brave
By Bo Niles, 1998
Independence Day is a good time to examine who we are and how we got here.

Independence Day in Bristol, Rhode Island
By Carol McCabe, 2002
This July, Bristol, a coastal town founded in 1680, will again celebrate the Glorious Fourth with its historic Military, Civic and Firemen's Parade. The first mention of Independence Day in Bristol dates from July 1777, when a British officer heard celebratory sounds across the waters of Narragansett Bay: "This being the first anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the Rebel Colonies, they ushered in the morning by firing 13 cannons, one for each colony ...

Independence Day, Apart From the Fireworks
By James D. Bloom, 2002
Each year, on July 4, Americans celebrate their freedom and independence with great fanfare. But writers and artists have often seen a deeper meaning in what is for most Americans a celebratory occasion. Like writers everywhere, they tend to probe and analyze this powerful symbolic event for nuanced reflection on the values that underlie the Fourth of July. As a result, the national holiday in classic American literature sometimes takes on an ironic or shadowed cast.

Playing with Fire
By Jack Kelly, 1997
Legion Fireworks has carried on a venerable craft tradition that has permeated pyrotechnics since it arrived in Italy from China 500 years ago. The history of fireworks and their use in celebration is presented.

Torpedo Patriotism
By Jack Kelly, 1997
Firecrackers, fountains and bottle rockets that ordinary citizens shoot off in their back yards, known in the fireworks industry as "toy" fireworks, are as equally replete with tradition and nostalgia as their larger counterparts.

Articles of Historical Interest

Meet the Author of the U.S. Constitution's Preamble
by Albert P. Blaustein, 2002
Best known for writing the preamble of the U.S. Constitution, Gouverneur Morris used his legendary wit, eloquence and insight to make many other contributions to liberty.

Constitution Is Most Important U.S. Export
by Albert P. Blaustein, 2004
In this essay Albert Blaustein, who taught at Rutgers School of Law and authored a six-volume work on the U.S. Constitution, outlines how the document has been used as a model by other governments in crafting their own constitutions. Written to commemorate the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, the article remains a classic assessment of the attraction of America's fundamental political document to nations struggling to achieve democracy from the eighteenth into the twenty-first centuries.

Dr. Franklin's Plan
By Stephan A. Schwartz, 2001
Years before the United States became a nation, Founding Father Benjamin Franklin had a plan for the kind of country he wanted it to be.

The Iconography of Triumph and Surrender
By Robert A. Selig, 2000
From Trumbull and Blarenberghe to Hess and Kunstler, dozens of painters, engravers, and lithographers have tried their hands and skills at depicting the plains outside Yorktown as they thought they looked on the day American independence was all but achieved.

The Idea of America
By Morghan Transue, 2003
As part of the "We the People" initiative, the National Endowment for the Humanities invited high school juniors across the United States to submit essays that explore what it is that connects the United States as a nation. More than thirteen hundred essays were submitted. The winner, Morghan Transue, examines the belief of most Americans that governmental "checks and balances" safeguard American democracy.

Midnight Riders
By By Charles J. Caes, 1997, 2004
Following a convoluted series of events, in the days leading up to April 15, 1775, Paul Revere and William Dawes were sent to alert Lexington and Concord that the British were coming. But it was a virtually forgotten third rider who would complete their mission

The Origins of Flag Day, 1996
The early history of the U.S. flag and Flag Day is a matter of debate. Both President Wilson, in 1916, and President Coolidge, in 1927, issued proclamations asking for June 14 to be observed as the National Flag Day. But it wasn't until August 3, 1949, that Congress approved the national observance, and President Harry Truman signed it into law.

Our Flag Was Still There
By Edwards Park, 2000
It's the Star-Spangled Banner; the anthem it inspired plays on as a musical salute to the Stars and Stripes

Seamstress for a Revolution
By William C. Kashatus, 2002
Kashatus details the life of Betsy Ross, a seamstress who lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the 1770s, and her prominent role in the history of the flag of the United States. There is controversy surrounding the claim of her descendants that she was the one who designed and made the first U.S. flag during the War of Independence.

Winter of Discontent
by Norman Gelb, 2003
Even as he endured the hardships of Valley Forge, George Washington faced another challenge: critics who questioned his fitness to lead.