Reagan called America a 'city on a hill' because taxpayers funded the humanities

By Abram Van Engen, Associate Professor of English, Washington University in St Louis. President Ronald Reagan on stage with his wife Nancy, 1984. AP Photo/Reed Saxon When Ronald Reagan called the United States a “city on a hill,” in 1974, it encapsulated an expansive, optimistic vision of America. The phrase comes from a Puritan sermon by…