In December 2024, I began editing a series for the National Association of Scholars that we eventually came to call The Road to the American Revolution. The aim was to retrace the events that led to July 4, 1776. It was our way of celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

For the next several months, Peter Wood, David Randall, Keith Whitaker, and I revisited the events leading up to July 4, 1776. I generally published the essays in accordance with the dates on which the events occurred.

At first, this was very much a working project. The essays found their first home on the old Minding the Campus website, collected under the admittedly uninspired tag, “The American Revolution Series.”

But as the series developed, it became clear that we needed to give the project a home of its own. So, sometime in October 2025, I moved the previously published pieces from Minding the Campus to Substack and began publishing new entries there. I titled the Substack The Road to the American Revolution. It was a bit more inspired, though I maintained the plainly titled “American Revolution” tag on the updated Minding the Campus website, which directs would-be readers to the Substack.

Last month, we reached July 4, publishing Wood’s excellent piece “Fight the Un-Declarers.” We had long expected that his July 4^th essay would be the end of the series. But, come to think of it, declaring independence and actually winning it are two different things.

So, we have decided to keep the series going. Wood has already taken us beyond July 4. In his recent essay, “They Took Up the Hatchet,” he foreshadows how the Cherokee will become a problem for the colonists.

But since we are keeping the series going, the title, The Road to the American Revolution, doesn’t quite work anymore. It needs a new name.

The Road to the American Revolution is now Dispatches from the American Revolution. I find this title much more inspired—and its conception fits even for the earlier essays in the series.

Readers can expect new essays soon. My colleague David Randall has put together quite a list of dates for us to cover. So, there is a lot in store.

We hope these dispatches, both those leading up to July 4 and those that will follow, will serve as a useful resource for readers who encounter the series now or years from now.

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Note: I first published this announcement on Substack