This article details the conception and development of the American Democracy Project, a project conceived by a group of chief academic officers in order to address the rising level of bitter partisanship in national politics, the growing disenchantment of college students with political and civic life, and public colleges' and universities' loss of a sense of public purpose. Focusing on civic engagement in the first year of college, the group's initial discussion of citizenship in the first year of college quickly shifted to a broader concern about students' preparation for citizenship and the role of public education for the public good. During this time of the project's conception, researchers such as Robert Putnam had catalogued Americans' increasing reluctance to come together through service and recreational organizations and groups. William Galston and his colleagues at CIRCLE--the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement--had documented the decline in the civic participation of young Americans over the past 40 years. And Harry Boyte and others had been calling for a new understanding of politics and the role of ordinary citizens in the democratic process. The group linked these concerns to calls for public higher education to reclaim its public purposes, expressed in Wingspread manifestos and the work of organizations such as Campus Compact. This article also stresses the major role that the project's partners including the member presidents and chancellors of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) who signed up for the project, The New York Times, and The Carnegie Foundation in accomplishing its goals.