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The November Title
Announcing the next Thornwillow Dispatch

THE FIRST DUTY OF AN AMERICAN CITIZEN

by John Meacham

Available for pre-order via subscription to the Thornwillow Dispatch until October 31st, 2026, at 7 pm EST.

Dear Friends of Thornwillow,

As we continue to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States, it gives me great pleasure to announce our next Thornwillow Dispatch: Jon Meacham’s The First Duty of an American Citizen.

Throughout this anniversary year, we have been thinking not only about the documents, events, and individuals that shaped the founding of the country, but also about what that inheritance asks of us today.

In this short and powerful book, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Jon Meacham turns his attention from presidents and political leaders to us, to the responsibilities of every citizen. What does self-government require of you? What obligations accompany the freedoms we inherit? And what habits of mind and character are necessary if the American experiment is to endure?

The First Duty of an American Citizen is a reminder that citizenship is not something we possess. It is something we practice.

With highest regards from the press,

Luke Ives Pontifell
Printer & Publisher

Available for pre-order via subscription to the Thornwillow Dispatch until October 31st, 2026, at 7 pm EST.

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What does self-government require of its citizens?

In The First Duty of an American Citizen, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Jon Meacham turns from the actions of presidents and political leaders to the responsibilities that rest with us, with every American citizen.

Drawing upon voices from across American history, Meacham considers the habits essential to a functioning democracy: Engaging with those with whom we disagree, respecting facts and reason, resisting reflexive partisanship, maintaining a critical balance, and looking to history for perspective.

This important text asks an enduring question with particular resonance as the United States marks its 250th anniversary. What must each generation do to sustain the American experiment it has inherited?

JON MEACHAM is a Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer, historian, journalist, and editor whose work has explored the American presidency, leadership, and the nation’s ongoing struggle to live up to its founding ideals.

He has written extensively about figures including Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, George H. W. Bush, John Lewis, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill, as well as the larger forces that have shaped American political and civic life. His 2009 biography of Andrew Jackson, American Lion, received the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, and his most recent work, American Struggle, examines more than four centuries of debate over the meaning and direction of the American experiment.

Before devoting himself more fully to books and teaching, Meacham spent many years in journalism and publishing. He served for eight years as managing editor of Newsweek and was the magazine’s editor from 2006 to 2010. He later served as executive editor and executive vice president of Random House and has been a contributing editor at TIME and a contributing writer to The New York Times Book Review.

Meacham holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Chair in the American Presidency at Vanderbilt University, where he also co-chairs the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy. He is a fellow of the Society of American Historians and was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2024.