During the July 4 week of celebration, join us for a discussion of our country and its sweeping history told through fifteen speeches. Don’t miss Ben Rhodes’s All We Say, and the insights shared by this celebrated podcaster, author, and speechwriter, in conversation with historian Douglas Brinkley.
What does it mean to be American? For 250 years, this question has shaped our Constitution, our dialogue and decisions about abolitionism, secession, and civil war; populism, mass migration, and global leadership. Through the presentation of 15 historic speeches—and riveting and beautifully rendered accounts of the people, movements and moments that produced them—Ben Rhodes traces the history of our country’s battle over identity. All You Say animates such pivotal speeches as Benjamin Franklin’s call for compromise at the Constitutional Convention, Alexander Stephens’s case for white supremacy as the cornerstone of the Confederacy, Martin Luther King’s dream of true equality, and Ronald Reagan’s rallying cry against the Soviet Union. Don’t miss author Ben Rhodes and moderator Douglas Brinkley fresh and powerful exploration of our country’s foundational speeches and beliefs.
Zoom Access
Click here to join the live broadcast: https://zoom.us/j/99389620550
The live broadcast will take place July 8, 2026, 6:00-7:15p.m. Eastern Time. The program will be recorded, and registrants will receive a link to the video recording, which will be posted to this page.
Additional Information
Signed Books: Attendees who purchase the $48 bundled ticket will be mailed a signed (book-plated) copy of All We Say, The Battle for American Identity: A History in 15 Speeches ($35 value), in addition to gaining access to the virtual program. Book(s) will be sent by our partners at Porter Square Books (Cambridge, Mass.) two weeks after event; via Priority Mail throughout the U.S., except in Massachusetts (Media Mail).
Ben Rhodes is the author of The New York Times bestsellers After the Fall and The World as It Is. From 2009 to 2017, Ben served as a speechwriter and deputy national security advisor to President Obama. He is currently co-host of Pod Save the World, a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, a contributor for MS NOW, a senior advisor to former President Obama, and chair of National Security Action, which he co-founded with Jake Sullivan in 2018.
Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, a CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He works in many capacities in the world of public history and is a frequent contributor to CNN, CBS, MS NOW, and NBC and ABC News networks. Six of his books were named New York Times “Notable Books of the Year” and seven became New York Times bestsellers. His most recent book is Silent Spring Revolution.