No Hyphens: Theodore Roosevelt and the Civic Nation
In 1915 Roosevelt told a hall full of immigrants' sons what it meant to be an American. His answer still holds.
Theodore Roosevelt gave his warning against "hyphenated Americanism" in October 1915, while the war in Europe was testing the loyalties of a country of immigrants. His point was about allegiance, not ancestry.
“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism.”Theodore Roosevelt, 1915
Roosevelt welcomed newcomers who became Americans in full. He asked that their loyalty be undivided: one flag, one language of public life, one country. He was not asking them to sign a creed. He was asking them to join a people.
Why it matters now
A country that cannot agree on what it is will struggle to agree on what it should do. A shared American identity, grounded in a real history and taught with pride and honesty, is the base everything else is built on.
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