The inaugural Slow Boring book club meets next week! Join us at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on July 7 for a discussion with Princeton professor Leah Boustan about her new book Streets of Gold. Buy the book here, and sign up for the discussion here. This event is for paid subscribers.

Happy Independence Day!

July 4 is first and foremost a time for grilling and fireworks, two things that I really unironically enjoy. But it’s probably also a good time to Say Something About America, so I wanted to recommend an oldish book by Bernard Bailyn called “The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution.”

What he does for the book is really dig into the pamphlets and such that were being published and widely read during the revolutionary period. Not just the handful of really stellar ones that stand out centuries later as quality work, but lots of run-of-the-mill stuff that was influential at the time and then just kind of faded away. It’s an inherently interesting exercise for someone in my line of work.…