The 1781 Battle of Yorktown, in Virginia, as shown in a French lithograph from ca. 1840.

With this Independence Day, we entered the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. Why should Americans care about their nation’s origin story so many years ago?

The Revolution was one of the most important historical events of the past 2,000 years. It established the world’s most successful, enduring republic where the people control the government, and through that, their own collective fate.

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It was not something that began and ended two and a half centuries ago. Instead, it was the beginning of an unprecedented experiment of a nation where citizens elect representatives to make decisions on their behalf, rather than ceding power to a king or directly participating in all aspects of governance. The founding values and principles – set forth in the Declaration of Independence, and........

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