The Constitution of the United States (U.S. Heritage)

Permaculture magazine has been in print since 1992, during which time John Adams has been writing articles about his various DIY projects. This is a collection of his most popular projects plus a selection of our favorite readers' DIY submissions.

A Scottish merchant and captain, Alexander Hamilton sailed for more than thirty years, from around 1688 to 1723, across the seas linking southern Africa to the coasts of India. Independent of the great companies, he traded on his own account from Zanzibar to Japan, closely observing the courts, ports, and wars of his time. His account, published in 1727 under the title A New Account of the East Indies, remains one of the few direct testimonies of a European merchant who lived, rather than imagined, the Indian Ocean of his era.

Samuel Adams was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and one of the architects of the principles of American republicanism that shaped the political culture of the United States. He was a second cousin to his fellow Founding Father, President John Adams.

English-born Thomas Paine left behind hearth and home for adventures on the high seas at nineteen. Upon returning to shore, he became a tax officer, and it was this job that inspired him to write The Case of the Officers of Excise in 1772. Paine then immigrated to Philadelphia, and in 1776 he published Common Sense, a defense of American independence from England. After returning to Europe, Paine wrote his famous Rights of Man as a response to criticism of the French Revolution. He was subsequently labeled as an outlaw, leading him to flee to France where he joined the National Convention. However, in 1793 Paine was imprisoned, and during this time he wrote the first part of The Age of Reason, an anti-church text which would go on to be his most famous work. After his release, Paine returned to America where he passed away in 1809.

Patrick Henry (1939-2026) was professor of religion at Swarthmore College from 1967 to 1984. He was a Benedictine oblate of the community at Saint John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota, and served as the executive director of the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research from 1984 to 2004. Throughout his life he authored and co-authored many articles, book reviews, and books, including Benedictine Options: Learning to Live from the Sons and Daughters of Saints Benedict and Scholastica (Liturgical Press 2021).