In this Book
- Our American Story: The Search for a Shared National Narrative
- Book
- 2019
- Published by: University of Nebraska Press
summary
Over the past few decades, the complicated divides of geography, class, religion, and race created deep fractures in the United States, each side fighting to advance its own mythology and political interests. We lack a central story, a common ground we can celebrate and enrich with deeper meaning. Unable to agree on first principles, we cannot agree on what it means to be American. As we dismantle or disregard symbols and themes that previously united us, can we replace them with stories and rites that unite our tribes and maintain meaning in our American identity?
Against this backdrop, Our American Story features leading thinkers from across the political spectrum—Jim Banks, David W. Blight, Spencer P. Boyer, Eleanor Clift, John C. Danforth, Cody Delistraty, Richard A. Epstein, Nikolas Gvosdev, Cherie Harder, Jason Kuznicki, Gerard N. Magliocca, Markos Moulitsas, Ilya Somin, Cass R. Sunstein, Alan Taylor, James V. Wertsch, Gordon S. Wood, and Ali Wyne. Each draws on expertise within their respective fields of history, law, politics, and public policy to contribute a unique perspective about the American story. This collection explores whether a unifying story can be achieved and, if so, what that story could be.
Against this backdrop, Our American Story features leading thinkers from across the political spectrum—Jim Banks, David W. Blight, Spencer P. Boyer, Eleanor Clift, John C. Danforth, Cody Delistraty, Richard A. Epstein, Nikolas Gvosdev, Cherie Harder, Jason Kuznicki, Gerard N. Magliocca, Markos Moulitsas, Ilya Somin, Cass R. Sunstein, Alan Taylor, James V. Wertsch, Gordon S. Wood, and Ali Wyne. Each draws on expertise within their respective fields of history, law, politics, and public policy to contribute a unique perspective about the American story. This collection explores whether a unifying story can be achieved and, if so, what that story could be.
Table of Contents
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- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. i-iv
- Introduction
- pp. vii-xiv
- Part I: Building Blocks of a National Narrative
- Composite Nation?
- pp. 3-18
- The Plastic Age
- pp. 28-37
- Part II: Conceptual Unifying Narratives
- Can the United States Be One People?
- pp. 55-65
- Holding Ourselves Together
- pp. 66-73
- Society and Service
- pp. 74-90
- The Story of Us
- pp. 91-99
- An American Community
- pp. 100-115
- A Dream for Anyone and Everyone
- pp. 116-122
- Foot-Voting Nation
- pp. 123-136
- Transatlantic Perspectives
- pp. 137-148
- Part III: Stories as the Basis for Narrative
- Embattled Farmers
- pp. 151-159
- America as a Social Movement
- pp. 160-167
- Yankee Ingenuity
- pp. 168-172
- Part IV: Skeptical Approaches to an American Story
- One Nation Divisible
- pp. 189-200
- America’s Broken Narrative of Exceptionalism
- pp. 201-208
- List of Contributors
- pp. 209-213
Additional Information
ISBN
9781640122079
Related ISBN(s)
9781640121706
MARC Record
OCLC
1091625893
Pages
224
Launched on MUSE
2019-04-29
Language
English
Open Access
No