Overview

America’s getting old. It’s soon to celebrate its 250th birthday. But it’s getting harder and harder for its citizens to find anything to agree on. Students pull down statues of Abraham Lincoln, while others rally around Confederacy symbols. In one version of the story, the first ‘Americans’ are brave pioneers, in another they are settler colonialists. For some, the Founding Fathers are national heroes, for others they’re enslavers and hypocrites at best. Award-winning historian Beverly Gage takes us on an all-American road trip, stretching from New York to California, through the Rust Belt and the Deep South, in search of America’s national story. From the Battle of Alamo to the West Virginia Mine Wars, Gage dives into America’s messy contradictions and discovers a country we still can love.

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9781836430582

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Reviews

'To go on the road with Beverly Gage is to travel America with a wise and companionable guide who unpacks the stories that are both offered and concealed at the museums, monuments, and souvenir shops where Americans come face-to-face with their past. Gage has a gift for reframing familiar stories and finding forgotten characters who capture a moment. By showing how much contestation the past generated, This Land is Your Land leaves readers hopeful that the country will survive today’s conflicts, too.' Barbara J. Keys, author of Reclaiming American Virtue

'To go on the road with Beverly Gage is to travel America with a wise and companionable guide who unpacks the stories that are both offered and concealed at the museums, monuments, and souvenir shops where Americans come face-to-face with their past. Gage has a gift for reframing familiar stories and finding forgotten characters who capture a moment. By showing how much contestation the past generated, This Land is Your Land leaves readers hopeful that the country will survive today’s conflicts, too.' Barbara J. Keys, author of Reclaiming American Virtue 'Pulitzer Prize winner Gage offers a gregarious travelogue turned history lesson, turned lesson on how history is made. It’s a marvellous deep dive into the American psyche.' Publishers Weekly

Author Information

Beverly Gage is professor of twentieth-century American history at Yale University. She is the author of G-Man, a multi-award-winning biography of J. Edgar Hoover. She writes for the New York Times, Washington Post and the New Yorker, among other publications.

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