The American Crisis

1. A series of pamphlets written by Thomas Paine during the Revolutionary War, in which Paine discussed issues of the revolution. The first pamphlet begins with a memorable statement: “These are the times that try men's souls.”

Example Sentences

In the mid-1980s, the Soviets focused on one particular sore spot: the American crisis of homelessness.

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Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland was wrapping up the Democrats’ case against former President Donald Trump when he cited Paine’s classic phrasing from a pamphlet called “The American Crisis.”

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They explained that a police officer in Kenosha, Wis., shooting Jacob Blake in the back seven times, and a teenager fatally shooting two protesters, had escalated the American crisis to a point where they had to stop.

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While aggressively confronting the American crisis, he or she might create a global, emergency health financing mechanism to help developing countries meet their most urgent needs.

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And he’s central to the history of this little bar, which takes its name from his “The American Crisis” — and either the early 20th-century neighborhood restaurateur Romany Marie or Marie Dumont, the chanteuse who is said to have christened it.

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