Overview

The American story begins before there was an America at all, except in the imagination of peoples around the world, living in poverty and yearning for freedom. From its beginnings America has been a land of hope, a magnet for people looking for a new beginning, a new life for themselves and their families. Out of their efforts, a new nation gradually came into being. It was a nation formed by men and women who believed that freedom meant being able to rule themselves, rather than being ruled over by distant kings and princes. Such a nation would be a great experiment, a large republic unlike any other in history. Through a brave war of independence, and wise acts of statecraft, its leaders created a system of government that could protect the ideals of freedom and self-rule that they cherished. It was a brilliant system. But it was far from perfect, especially in its permitting the continued existence of slavery. It could not prevent a bloody and wounding civil war, a terrible contest pitting brother against brother and testing the great experiment to the breaking point―testing, but not breaking. The nation came out of the Civil War and postwar Reconstruction battered, but with a future full of possibility lying ahead.

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Wilfred M. McClay is the G.T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty at the University of Oklahoma and the director of the Center for the History of Liberty. A graduate of St. John's College in Annapolis, he received his Ph.D. in history from Johns Hopkins University. His book The Masterless was awarded the Merle Curti Award, and he has been appointed to the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which is planning events for the nation's 250th anniversary in 2026. Adam Verner is a full-time narrator who has recorded over 250 audiobook titles. The recipient of multiple Earphones awards, including for Pavilion of Women by Pearl S. Buck, he has also been nominated for Voice Arts Awards by the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences. He holds an MFA in Acting from the Chicago College of the Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

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