The John Adams Institute

Welcoming the best and brightest of American thinking

Upcoming events

Jennifer Carlson: Democracy by Bullet?

Merchants of the Right: Gun Sellers and the Crisis of American Democracy

Gun sellers aren’t just merchants of guns but are also agents of conservative politics and ideals. That’s because gun sales in America aren’t only an economic exchange, but also a cultural one, with serious implications for society at large. In Merchants of the Right: Gun Sellers and the Crisis of American Democracy, Jennifer Carlson’s warning …...

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Yaël Eisenstat: Democracy’s Cyber Defendant

Polarization, Elections and AI

In 2018, Yaël Eisenstat joined Facebook as the head of Global Elections Integrity for political ads. Six months later, she left, angry and disillusioned, exposing how Facebook profits financially from voter manipulation. In her talk at the John Adams Institute, she will be addressing the outsized and worrisome role that social media and artificial intelligence …...

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American Sonnets for my Past and Future Assassin

Poetics and Politics with award-winning Poet Terrance Hayes

I lock you in an American sonnet that is part prison, / Part panic closet, in a little room in a house set aflame … I lock your persona in a dream-inducing sleeper hold / While your better selves watch from the bleachers.  In 70 poems bearing the same title, Terrance Hayes explores the meanings …...

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The New Anthology

The New Anthology is a community-led, multi-year project that gives new voice to aspects of our shared Dutch-American history by connecting stories and perspectives that have often been overlooked or purposefully ignored. Visit the online collection to find out more!

Get acquainted with the John Adams by watching recordings of our lectures or listening to our podcast ‘Bright Minds’.

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About The John Adams Institute

The John Adams Institute provides an independent podium for American culture in the Netherlands. For three decades, we have brought the best and the brightest of American thinking from the fields of literature, politics, history, and technology.

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Young Minds & Quincy Club

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American culture in the Netherlands

Exhibition Janette Beckman at FOAM

From 10 May to 8 September, FOAM presents Rebels, the first large-scale retrospective of iconic punk and hip-hop photographer Janette Beckman. Over the past 40 years, the British-American artist has documented (underground) movements, from the rise of the punk and hip-hop scenes to like Black Lives Matter. Click here for more information and tickets.

A Dutch Architect’s Vision of Cities That Float on Water

The Netherlands  lies in a delta where three major rivers meet the open expanse of the North Sea. More than a quarter of the country sits below sea level. Over hundreds of years, the Dutch have struggled to manage their sodden patchwork of land. Dutch architect Kees Olthuis has spent more than two decades seeking ways to coexist with the wolf. In this article for the New Yorker, he talks about his vision of cities floating on water.

‘Go on and improve in everything worthy.’

John Adams