Part one of “250 Years: Looking Back & Looking Ahead,” a four-part lecture series at Norman Williams Public Library co-hosted by Woodstock History Center in collaboration with the Vermont Humanities Council.

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The United States is a paradoxical nation, established in a burst of idealism that has inspired
generations of Americans, yet weighed down by oppressive cultural legacies that stubbornly
persist. In 1776, giving voice to Enlightenment faith in reason, progress, and the “rights of
man,” Thomas Paine asserted, “We have it in our power to begin the world over again,” and the Declaration of Independence seemed to represent a fresh start for humanity. But old
prejudices, old power structures, and old flaws of human nature remained unvanquished, and
up to our own time they have effectively limited the revolutionary potential of the Declaration.
The struggles of the past twelve score and ten years suggest that the power of Enlightenment
idealism is considerably more modest than Paine, Jefferson, and their fellow revolutionaries
wanted to believe.

Ron Miller of South Burlington has been an educational scholar and activist, teacher, publisher and bookseller, community leader, and philanthropist. He received a Ph.D. from Boston University in American Studies. He has authored several books, and has founded, published, or edited several magazines. He has taught at Goddard College and Champlain College, and helped establish the Bellwether School in Williston. From 2014 to 2021, he ran the Learning Lab in Woodstock, where he taught American history and other topics. He is a past president of the Norman Williams Public Library and has served on several other nonprofit boards.