City Upon a Hill Blog

The following graphs are used to demonstrate the number of references president’s during the 20th century made to the “City Upon a Hill” idea, particularly as described by historian Alan Brinkley in an article for the Atlantic called the The Messiah Complex. The data was  compiled by Dr. Murnane’s D period history class, after reviewing presidential speeches found at the Presidential Speech Archive at the Miller Center for Public Affairs, University of Virginia. Students discussed the “ups and downs,” comparing them to a time line of  U.S. History. Students then commented to this post, explaining WHY these “ups and downs” appeared over the course of the 20th century.