As part of its We the People initiative, NEH invites high school juniors to participate in an essay contest that invites them to reflect on The Idea of America.

Alexis de Tocqueville, an early visitor to the United States, described America as:

. . . a society which comprises all the nations of the world . . . people differing from one another in language, in beliefs, in opinions. . . . What is the connecting link among these so different elements? How are they welded into one people?

These questions have been asked many times since America's founding. For many other nations, the link has been a common ethnic heritage or a shared religion or old colonial borders or the boundaries of mountains, seas, and rivers.

The United States is an exception. Americans are united by a set of principles that are universal in aspiration and inclusive across lines of race, creed, and place of origin.

That is The Idea of America.

At times in our history, The Idea of America has seemed remote or elusive. The meanings of words on yellowed parchment and the stories behind mute images on dollar bills are all too easily forgotten. But, especially in difficult times, Americans have been inspired when they find fresh words to express the ideas that quietly have united them all along.