Introduction: Competing visions of patriotism -- The revolution: Declaring and constituting a nation -- The early Republic: Young, expanding, and divided -- The Civil War: Testing whether the nation could endure -- The Gilded Age: Wealth, empire, and resistance -- The Progressive Era: From Roosevelt and reform to World War -- The Depression and World War II: Beyond the Greatest Generation -- The 1960s: Love it, leave it, or change it -- The 1980s: Morning and mourning in America -- Conclusion: Patriotism in the age of Trump.
Summary:
"In Of Thee I Sing, Ben Railton describes a spectrum of competing visions of patriotism that can be traced across key moments and texts in American history and that comprise a crucial debate in our 21st century moment. Drawing on the four verses as of America the Beautiful, Railton finds four central competing threads of American patriotism: celebratory, mythologizing, active, and critical. He traces each of these competing visions across a series of historical and cultural case studies, from the Revolution and the Early Republic to the Civil War and Gilded Age, and throughout the 20th century. Of Thee I Sing will also demonstrate how all four forms of patriotism remain present and evolving in our current moment, and indeed how they collectively help explain the ongoing 21st century debates over our national identity and community, history and future"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.