As American as Apple Pie

A people’s history of the commons in the U.S.

Although new to us, the commons is actually a very old idea that has continually influenced human progress. It remains a central organizing principle of indigenous peoples, peasant communities and advanced industrial nations. Social democracy, as practiced in Europe and other places, embodies a basic commons principle—that no one should be denied basic needs like food, housing, health care, day care, education, transportation, job training, paid vacation, a comfortable old age and a measure of dignity in their lives.

American society has been grounded in commons since the beginning. “Nature’s gifts are the common property of the human race,” declared Thomas Paine. The Land Ordinance of 1785, drafted by a committee of the Continental Congress that included Thomas Jefferson, established a cooperative model for settlement of the West (and removal of Indian nations) by setting aside one square-mile section of every township as common property to be used to support a public school.

New Deal legislation, crowned by the Social Security Act, as well as the GI Bill drew upon a sense of the commons—the belief that we’re all in this together—to ease economic disadvantage and elevate millions of families into the middle class. In many cases, however, these benefits were denied to African Americans, a situation Ira Katznelson chronicles in his book When Affirmative Action Was White. Repairing the long- standing injustice done to African Americans, American Indians, Latinos and other excluded groups remains one of the central missions of commons activism today.

Although rarely articulated as a distinct philosophy, the ideals of the commons provided inspiration for key advancements throughout our history—some by government programs and others by citizen initiatives, ranging from public health improvements to the labor and women’s movements. All these success stories refute frequent claims that individualism alone accounts for America’s progress.

—JAY WALLJASPER
Photo from flickr.com under a Creative Commons license

Editor: Another chapter in Celebrating the Commons: People Stories and Ideas for the New Year from Commons Magazine being presented each Sunday at EYNU.