American History Lives: A Story Of The People, By The People, For The People

Gentle warning: This is a big story about a big nation. My beloved editor, Scott, suggests it can be read as a story and/or used as a living-history resource. Americans are doers. In the United States today, history is an action word. This is, after all, a participatory democracy, and people are participating in its history by volunteering, crafting, interpreting, re-enacting, re-creating and exploring the old — anew. "For me, the doing is essential to learning," says food historian Paula Marcoux , who has led culinary workshops at Monticello , President Thomas Jefferson's home in Virginia. Back in November when NPR asked people What Do We Do Now In America The Same Way We Did It 100 Years Ago? the number and range of the responses were overwhelming. More than 600 people from around the country sent in star-spangled ideas of American history in action. Several hundred more commented on Facebook . As the crowd of sources points out in this crowdsourced story, a fair number of our