By Presents an analysis of the cycles of American history and the country’s enduring refusal to face its true nature—especially at the moments when national anniversaries steer us back toward the mythology meant to disguise the truth. Details an exploration of America’s legacy through a combination of lessons and voices—from W.E.B. DuBois and John Dos Passos to Herman Melville and Martin Luther King, Jr.—that, together, paint a sprawling and honest tableau of the United States, its complicated past, and ever more tenuous future. Calls on readers to interrogate their conceptions of innocence and freedom and the stories they tell themselves about their past and present. Centered around the major celebrations of America’s milestone birthdays across 250 years of history, the book offers a look at the battles over who has a stake in writing the American story. Candid, moving, and reflective, it is a meditation on how we must reckon with our past in order to strive for the better angels of our future. Read more.