Today's college students, our nation's future leaders, must understand their nation's history and founding principles if they are to be informed and engaged citizens. They need to understand not only the fundamental institutions and ideals that defined the American founding, but also the more than two centuries of debate and struggle through which Americans have worked out their unique identity as a people. In addition, in this post-9/11 era, it is increasingly necessary that students understand America's relationship to the rest of the world.

Josiah Bunting III is the chairman of ISI's National Civic Literacy Board, where he oversees the American Civic Literacy Program. In addition to his work with ISI, General Bunting is the president of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. He served his country as an infantry officer in Vietnam and is superintendent emeritus of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI). He is a Rhodes Scholar and author of several books, including An Education for Our Time and, most recently, a biography of Ulysses S. Grant for the American Presidents Series edited by Arthur Schlesinger. His biography of General George C. Marshall, Secretary of State, was scheduled to be published later in 2007.