Home › Books › The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America…
The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America's Story
by
87/99
Critics' Rating Index
90/99
Readers' Rating Index
n/a
Scholars' Citation Index
3/99
Volume of Reviews
42/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
Our idea of the Founders' America and its values is not true. We are not the heirs of the Founders, but we can be the heirs of Reconstruction and its vision for equality. There's a common story we tell about that our fundamental values as a country were stated in the Declaration of Independence, fought for in the Revolution, and made law in the Constitution. But, with the country increasingly divided, this story isn't working for us anymore—what's more, it's not even true. As Kermit Roosevelt argues in this eye-opening reinterpretation of the American story, our fundamental values, particularly equality, are not part of the vision of the Founders. Instead, they were stated in Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and were the hope of Reconstruction, when it was possible to envision the emergence of the nation committed to liberty and equality. We face a dilemma these days. We want to be honest about our history and the racism and oppression that Americans have both inflicted and endured. But we want to be proud of our country, too. In The Nation That Never Was , Roosevelt shows how we can do both those things by realizing we're not the country we thought we were. Reconstruction, Roosevelt argues, was not a fulfillment of the ideals of the Founding but rather a we modern Americans are not the heirs of the Founders but of the people who overthrew and destroyed that political order. This alternate understanding of American identity opens the door to a new understanding of ourselves and our story, and ultimately to a better America. America today is not the Founders' America, but it can be Lincoln's America. Roosevelt offers a powerful and inspirational rethinking of our country's history and uncovers a shared past that we can be proud to claim and use as a foundation to work toward a country that fully embodies equality for all.
Reviews
"Americans love to tell comforting stories about our foundational documents, writes Roosevelt, a Penn law professor and great-great-grandson of Theodore Roosevelt...'Segregation and denying Blacks the vote are perfectly consistent with the Declaration of Independence,' writes the author...The nub of the Declaration, he adds, is that when supposedly free people are oppressed, it is incumbent upon them to rebel...Roosevelt proposes that we do away with that institution and attempt a national enterprise to atone for our original sin through targeted investment in Black and other marginalized communities, which 'offers the possibility of a real transformation'...His argument is sometimes repetitive but compelling and well worth consideration...A novel way of reading our founding documents and revising them as both law- and nation-building myths."
"Misunderstandings about the language and intent of America's founding documents are the cause of today's political dysfunctions, according to this impassioned revisionist history...Constitutional law scholar Roosevelt maintains that the values taken for granted by most Americans were not actually encapsulated in the Declaration of Independence, because the statement 'All men are created equal' was not intended to mean that all people have equal rights...Delving into the precise language of the Declaration, the Federalist Papers, the Constitution, and other landmark texts, Roosevelt documents the founding fathers' problematic views on race and slavery and makes the strong case that Americans today are more properly the heirs of the people who 'rejected the Founders' Constitution'...Astute textual analysis, careful historical research, and a deep commitment to social justice make this an inspiring reexamination of America's past."
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!