Tag Archives: Declaration of Independence

My Early Literary Civics Lessons

By Robin Bates | Published: July 3, 2026

In which I explore the works that contributed to my vision of being an American.

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The Founders vs. Dostoyevsky’s Inquisitor

By Robin Bates | Published: May 5, 2024

Christian nationalists have the same objections to democracy that Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor has to Christ’s vision.

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Can a Dream Hold Us Together?

By Robin Bates | Published: April 5, 2018

In “Midnight’s Children,” Rushdie shows the forces destroying India’s dream of national unity. Americans will find it familiar.

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“We the People,” Nourishing Words

By Robin Bates | Published: March 9, 2016

In “Loves and Fishes” David Whyte pushes against the information age by pleading for poetry’s respect for language. “One good word is bread for a thousand,” he writes. A “Washington Monthly” columnist quotes President Obama with a good candidate for that word.

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Obama’s Star, Beowulf’s Sword

By Robin Bates | Published: January 22, 2013

Obama’s “star that guides us”–the ideals in “The Declaration of Independence”–are, in “Beowulf,” the sword used to kill Grendel’s Mother.

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