The National Endowment for the Humanities marks the fortieth anniversary this year with a look not just at our history but the challenges of today and tomorrow.  This book is adapted from eighteen conversations conducted by the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Bruce Cole. As NEH Chairman, Cole launched We the People an initiative that encourages the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture.  We the People includes an annual Heroes of History lecture, the Idea of America essay contest for high school students, and a program that distributes classic children’s books to libraries and schools nationwide. The next phase of We the People initiative features, among other projects, the National Digital Newspaper Program, a partnership with the Library of Congress to catalog and digitize the story of America’s past as told in its newspapers.  When complete, the program will allow Americans to search 30 million newspaper pages using the internet. The fearless and free exchange of ideas, respect for individual conscience, belief in the power of education – all these values are implicit in the study of the humanities, and all are on display within the pages of this book.  In this anniversary celebration, eighteen men and women speak their creative minds, emboldened by learning and liberty, the essential conditions in which the NEH continues to flourish.