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Celebrating the past 250 years by renewing the American Dream for the next quarter millennium
RENEWING THE AMERICAN DREAM
Rebuilding Main Street
Building Better Communities
The American Dream once thrived in small and medium-sized cities across the nation. Those same places are now declining in population and hope—but decline is not destiny.
Our team is advancing a model to rebuild these communities at scale with enhanced civic leadership and neighbor-led revitalization inside a human flourishing framework.
- Our Renewing Cities program is revitalizing buildings and businesses in small- and mid-size Midwestern towns through a community-owned, non-profit model.
- We’re accelerating innovation in communities through our Goldsmith Prize for Innovation in Local Government. Steve Goldsmith and team will equip mayors in Indiana through the Prize and nationally through his work at Harvard.
- Senior Fellow Dr. Amy Sherman has outlined a common framework for flourishing communities, from “The True” of knowledge and learning to “The Sustainable” of natural and physical health.
- At Sagamore’s Interurban, Senior Fellow Bill Taft is working at the intersection of community and economic development to empower communities to transform, renew, and innovate.
Reindustrializing the Economy to Protect the West
The Midwest’s 20th-century factories powered the American Dream and produced the material that the Allies used to win World War II.
Today, that same industrial base is being modernized through advanced manufacturing and tech-enabled solutions to enhance prosperity at home and maintain security abroad.
- Senior Fellow Jerry Hendrix, currently assigned to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, is working to architect a new strategy for U.S. maritime dominance, leveraging the Midwest’s industrial expertise on America’s “Fourth Coast.”
- We’re partnering with the New American Industrial Alliance Foundation to identify chokepoints in mission-critical U.S. industries, helping to implement a shared new Techno-Industrial Playbook.
- At the Midwest Defense Forum, we’re rallying regional and national policy and industry leaders under the banner of “Midwest Defense,” leveraging new innovations and technologies from the Heartland to protect our nation.
Building the Future of Defense
Renewing the Spirit of Citizenship
The story of America is a story of freedom, opportunity, and the dignity of every human being.
Over 250 years, there have been unprecedented advances in social uplift and application—sometimes imperfect—of the Founder’s ideals. Sagamore’s voices, convenings, and content equip all citizens to do their part in making a more perfect union.
- We’re celebrating America’s anniversary at our February Indiana Conference on Citizenship, which will be headlined by a fireside chat with constitutional scholar Yuval Levin.
- Senior Fellow Joe Loconte is spotlighting Benjamin Rush, America’s “Forgotten Founding Father,” in a new documentary that traces his impact on our democracy, from his service as a surgeon in Washington’s Continental Army to his outspoken advocacy for abolition.
- As part of the Forum network, Dr. Os. Guiness is educating Americans about our “civilizational moment.”
- We’ve collected a library of resources on the Foundation of a Nation, showing how the principles that underpinned America’s inception still inspire and inform our quest for a more perfect union.