Tag: American Essence

First Lady Abigail Adams Was a True Helpmate to America’s First Vice President and Second President

Abigail Adams has been lauded by historians and at least one president, Harry Truman, for her grit and keen insight. As the second of the first ladies, Abigail experienced firsthand the fight for a nation and the establishment of America. In fact, it was perhaps the Revolutionary War that shaped who she would become as…


How an Oregon Sheep Ranch Is Carrying on the Heritage of American Wool—and Shepherding It Into the Future

At first glance, it’s just an ordinary tussock of grass. Shimmering, graceful, silver-gold grass, dancing lightly in the summer breeze—but grass nonetheless. Yet sheep rancher Jeanne Carver’s fond regard for this 18-inch tuft at Imperial Stock Ranch, outside Shaniko in north-central Oregon, illustrates an idea that she hopes will transform her unique corner of agriculture:…


Jacques Pépin Didn’t Mean to Stay in America—But He’s Become the ‘Quintessential American Chef’

If you’re inviting Jacques Pépin to Thanksgiving dinner, you’d better have turkey on the table. How about something else this year, you might venture—a nice roast chicken, or a glazed ham? “I don’t want to do something else,” the chef would kindly, but firmly, inform you. “I want to have a turkey for Thanksgiving; I…


17-Year-Old Entrepreneur Turns Mission of Improving Children’s Oral Health into Reality with Million-Dollar Sugar-Free Candy Company

It has been said that the world always looks brighter from behind a smile. And that adage has been shaping Alina Morse’s thriving business decisions since she invented Zolli Candy at the age of 9 years old. Now, at 17, Morse not only creates new products for her extensive line of alternative candies, available through…


Grandma’s Humble Life: A Reader Remembers How His Grandmother Quietly Impacted Those Around Her

We stand on the shoulders of giants. Ora Hopkins was born in Yell County, Arkansas, in November 1902, to Jim and Nancy Miller Hopkins, the 10th of 11 children.  She lost her dad before she turned 8. She was orphaned at 14, having lost her mother and two older brothers to the Spanish flu epidemic. Just before her…


From Coal Miner’s Daughter to Queen of Country

Known for her soaring, vibrato-tinged voice and extravagant dresses worn while performing, Loretta Lynn’s story is a true rags-to-riches American tale. Her career was lauded with many awards that put her among the greats of country music as she shared songs that blended the past with the present. Coal Miner’s Daughter Despite her rise to fame,…


Historian Victor Davis Hanson on the Farmer’s Virtues

It’s nearly a 200-mile commute home for historian Victor Davis Hanson from the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he travels once a week, to his quiet family farm in the fertile Central Valley of California. As a classicist, he’s at ease with the ancient world but often brings a historian’s insightful perspective to current…


Grumman Engineering Had to Get 30,200 Pounds of Apollo Spacecraft to Moon and Back

In the fall of 1962, a little airplane manufacturer on Long Island, Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, beat out seven competitors for the lunar module contract. How did this happen? The story begins when Leroy Grumman, the company’s founder, struck out on his own in 1929. Working out of a rented garage, he began developing some…


Book Recommender: The Heroic Story of a Ranger and the Battle That Defined WWII

Ronald Reagan made the 2nd Ranger Battalion famous with his 1984 “Boys of Pointe Du Hoc” speech. There, he extolled the exploits of the Rangers who scaled those heights on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Ever since, many believe that the Rangers started and ended their World War II efforts on that day in June. In…


Master of the Light Classic: Leroy Anderson

The United States had led the Allies to victory in World War II, and with the war over, members of “The Greatest Generation” looked forward to getting back to civilian life, making a living, and spending time with their growing families. Jane Anderson Vercelli looks back on her early years growing up in Connecticut with…