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This guest author post is a Q&A with Larnell Gross, an Honors BA student in Political Communication. To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Gross created Soul of America: 250 Years Through Books to share a personal perspective on American identity through the lens of University of Michigan Press books. You can browse the catalog and view the eleven books that are free-to-read through the end of 2026 on the U.S. at 250 webpage.

Please tell us a bit about yourself and what inspired you to put together this project.

When I was in my Political Science Thesis Course in the Fall 2025 Semester, I was originally writing my Thesis on the New South era belief in the 1890’s. It was an interesting topic for me because of comments from many coalition members who believed in the “New South” idea. In his speech, Henry W. Grady said an interesting line about Americans that resonated with me: “Let us, each cherishing the traditions and honoring his fathers, build with reverent hands to the type of this simple but sublime life, in which all types are honored, and in our common glory as Americans there will be plenty and to spare for your forefathers and for mine.” While he claims to honor this common glory of being Americans, my thought process was that even though Black Americans at the time were seen as Americans by the law, they weren’t treated that way, nor were many other minorities during that time. That really sent me down a rabbit hole about what it means to be American. The South was forgiven and reinstated even after the rebellion, when the Confederacy was born, and today many people see many of those men as heroes, such as Robert E Lee.

When I was speaking with my professor during his office hours about this, he said he was interested in the topic as well, especially because the 250th celebration is around the corner and, for many Americans, it is a major event. This made me question what it means to be American, and then I had an idea: I wanted to create something for the celebration using books from my own school to represent this concept. I went to the University of Michigan Press to find out if this was possible and I met with Charles Watkinson to plan this idea out. I created this project with the wonderful help of many others in the University of Michigan Press’s team.

As you note in your preface, “America has never been shaped by one voice or experience.” What did you learn while working on this project? How did it reflect your own American experience?

Long before I was at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, I learned that America is not made by one voice or one experience. But this became even clearer through my experience at the university, especially in my class Enlightenment 467. This class was very impactful for me, as we went into Thomas Jefferson's view of what it means to be a free citizen. In one of our last class discussions, my professor asked us to think about Jefferson’s views on rights, especially the rights he thought all people were born with: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These words caused me to see an important aspect of the American experience. For America, the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have long been guiding principles. Though the country has too often fallen short of living up to these promises for everyone, these ideals have inspired generations of citizens and non-citizens alike to strive for freedom, equality, and belonging. The story of America is not one voice, but the ongoing work of many different people trying to make those principles real.

The Identity section, which is focused on the book #Identity: Hashtagging Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Nation, is the culmination of the sections on what it means to be American, in both private and public senses, in our contemporary society. The authors maintain that identity is not merely a private articulation of the self but a public performance influenced by algorithms, activist movements, and changing cultural logics. These digital platforms provide historically marginalized groups with new opportunities to reclaim representation and to revise the narratives that have traditionally defined them. In my collage, I wrote about how many of these marginalized groups had to band together and protest for what they believed were their American rights as citizens, and how many of them felt invisible to the government and those favored by it. Native Americans had their stories written for them; women had men speak for them. Women were conditioned not to see themselves as public citizens and faced social and institutional barriers that discouraged or even prevented them from pursuing educational and occupational paths leading to political office. Asian Americans themselves feel as if “Asian American” is an all-encompassing word that smashes together a group's identity; which exposes how a single label can obscure vast cultural, historical, and ethnic differences. American Jewish identity in the modern United States is marked by deep uncertainty and ongoing negotiation. The debate over whether one is best described as a Jewish American or an American Jew reveals the competing influences of religion, ethnicity, historical memory, and national belonging. Rather than constituting a fixed or stable category, Jewish identity emerges as fluid and contested, continually reshaped through questioning, reinterpretation, and negotiation. Just like Jewish Americans, the patriotism, faith, and national belonging of Muslim Americans were publicly called into question. The intersection of academic scholarship and personal experience reveals how moments of national crisis can transform citizens into perceived outsiders, illustrating the long-term effects of conflating Islam with violence and extremism.

Reading these books and connecting their arguments allowed me to understand that minority groups cannot be reduced to a single label, identity, or set of beliefs. These communities are composed of individuals who carry multiple identities and cultural traditions from all over the world. Although their experiences differ, many come to the United States drawn by the promise of the American ideal: the belief that through hard work, determination, and opportunity, anyone can pursue their aspirations and shape their own future.

The rise of social media has further expanded this understanding by creating new spaces for inclusion, participation, and representation. Digital platforms have given historically marginalized communities the ability to speak for themselves rather than having others define them. Through our phones and computers, we can interact with people whose experiences, cultures, and perspectives might otherwise remain distant from our own. In many ways, social media functions much like the automobile did in an earlier era: it shrinks distances, increases encounters between different communities, and reshapes how Americans understand one another.

Not only did this project involve research, but it also took a lot of work to design! Did you encounter any particular joys or challenges in putting it together?

Yes, this project was a blast to create. The research alone took months due to having to read each book as thoroughly as possible to make sure I was best representing the books and the authors' words and what they were expressing in their works.

Why do you think books and scholarship are important to a milestone anniversary like America’s 250th?

Books and scholarship are essential to a milestone anniversary like America’s 250th, because they contain the full, complicated story, not a polished myth. I've chosen eleven University of Michigan Press books for my collage because scholarship provides marginalized communities with a place at the table of history. The voices I chose to highlight—Native Americans, Black musicians, women suffragists, LGBT+ individuals, Arab and Asian Americans—didn’t just co-exist with American history; they were hidden, destroyed, and altered for many years due to fear and hatred of the different. Without serious academic work to document those contributions, a 250th anniversary risks being a celebration of mythology rather than truth.

Scholarship slows us down in the right way, demanding we sit with contradictions, like Jefferson writing “all men are created equal” while enslaving people. My collage does not resolve that tension; it uses it as a guiding thread. Books matter because they connect generations and transform individual curiosity into something larger. This collage started as a research project for an honors thesis, and became a creative journey that combined history, art, and storytelling, and that is what scholarship is for. The chain of people reading, writing, and passing down knowledge is 250 years old, and it is not just a reflection of America; it is the story of America. I wanted this collage to reach other students in that chain, to show that serious engagement with books about race, gender, culture, and identity is not divorced from celebrating this country; it is the most honest way to do so.

I heard that you are tutoring in Baltimore over the summer, how might your work with these books affect your approach to tutoring, or vice versa?

This summer's tutoring in Baltimore has expanded my thinking on this collage in ways I didn’t quite expect. The students I work with have histories like those documented in these books: resilience, creativity, communities making meaning under pressure. When I sit down with a student who can’t see themselves in what they’re learning, it reminds me of how I was, because I was never talented in math at all and always went to after-school hours for help. These books provided me with a framework for understanding that student feeling invisible in the classroom and feeling as if school isn’t for them. I want them to know so many people before them felt that way but knew education was important because it opened opportunities you wouldn’t have without it. Instead of making them feel more demoralized or scared of something new, patience is what is needed, and guiding the student with inspirational quotes, activities that they enjoy and mixing it with what they are learning and just having a shoulder to lean on when they are feeling nervous about anything that comes to wanting to learn.

This collage has also changed how I show up as a tutor. From scholarship about Native American traditions, women’s suffrage, hip-hop, and trans identity, I learned that knowledge looks different depending on whose experience is centered. I try to bring that same openness to every tutoring session, meeting students where they are, honoring what they already know, and helping them build on it rather than replace it. Every student has a different background, including circumstances they cannot control, so learning not to judge and to just assist and show that you want the best for them will increase participation among children in all spaces.

What conversations do you hope these books will spark among readers, students, and educators?

I hope this collage sparks something quiet and personal in readers: a conversation and a question about what happiness means in their lives. I chose the quote from Thomas Jefferson to echo throughout the project’s eighty pages not because he was perfect, but because the promise remains unfulfilled, and unfulfilled promises provoke thought. I want someone to read about trans performance and reflect on courage and identity or consider the pages on Native American traditions and rethink what it means to be a steward of the sacred. America at 250 years is not a static portrait; it is a layered collage still being assembled. I hope every reader who finds these books feels invited to add their own piece.

I hope this collage helps students see that their communities have always been a part of this country’s story, even if institutions say otherwise. I want a student to be able to pick up the chapter on hip-hop or the section on women’s suffrage and see themselves in the rigorous academic work, to know that scholarship is not something that happens above or around them, but something that can speak directly to their lives. This collage began as my honors thesis research. And a part of what I learned there is that curiosity about who you are and where you come from is what academic inquiry is for. I hope these books grant students’ permission to ask those questions loudly and unapologetically.

For educators, I hope this collage opens a harder conversation about whose knowledge is deemed worthy of serious study in the classroom. The University of Michigan Press books I've selected are not add-ons or cultural supplements to an orthodox curriculum. They are essential to understanding what America is and has always been. I hope educators read the sections on Arab and Asian American identity, digital hashtag movements, and Puerto Rican drag performance. I hope they ask themselves whether those stories are reflected in what they teach, and whether there is any connection to their curriculum. Professors who connect real-life experiences with their lectures or seminars create a new experience for students. This approach helps connect information from the past with today’s reality. How educators teach with enthusiasm also matters. It creates more excitement in the class and results in a dynamic learning experience. Expanding the canon is not a political gesture; it’s an intellectual one, and this anniversary is the time to do it.