The nation that never was : reconstructing America's story / Kermit Roosevelt III.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roosevelt, Kermit, 1971- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Declaration of Independence.

United States.

Constitutional history--United States.

Constitutional history.

Slavery--United States.

Slavery.

Equality--United States.

Equality.

Declaration of Independence (United States).

Physical Description:

250 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2022.

Summary:

"One standard story about America is rooted in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Another story concerns America's moment of reckoning after the Civil War, when it was possible to believe that the country would transcend its racist roots. Kermit Roosevelt III argues here that today, with the country increasingly riven along violent divides, we can find a path forward by shifting our benchmarks from the first story, which fostered the Confederacy, to the second. America doesn't need to find a new usable past; it already has one: we don't live in the Founders' America-we live in Lincoln's"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Stories of America

Questioning the standard story: dissenters

The exclusive Declaration

The ambiguous Revolution

The geostrategic Constitution

The story of continuity

The march of the Declaration

Why we tell the standard story

Why we shouldn't tell the standard story

Magic tricks and revolutions

Why, how, and who we are

Redemption songs: inclusive equality and exclusive individualism in modern America

The better story.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Beardwood Fund bookplate.

ISBN:

9780226817613

022681761X

OCLC:

1268257035