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Of thee I sing : the contested history of American patriotism / Ben Railton.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextSeries: American ways seriesPublisher: Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, an imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., [2021]Description: xx, 194 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781538143421
  • 1538143429
Subject(s):
Contents:
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.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 323.6509 R152 Available 33111010492797
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

When we talk about patriotism in America, we tend to mean one form: the version captured in shared celebrations like the national anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance. But as Ben Railton argues, that celebratory patriotism is just one of four distinct forms: celebratory, the communal expression of an idealized America; mythic, the creation of national myths that exclude certain communities; active, acts of service and sacrifice for the nation; and critical, arguments for how the nation has fallen short of its ideals that seek to move us toward that more perfect union.

In Of Thee I Sing , Railton defines those four forms of American patriotism, using the four verses of "America the Beautiful" as examples of each type, and traces them across our histories. Doing so allows us to reframe seemingly familiar histories such as the Revolution, the Civil War, and the Greatest Generation, as well as texts such as the national anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance. And it helps us rediscover forgotten histories and figures, from Revolutionary War Loyalists and the World War I Espionage and Sedition Acts to active patriots like Civil War nurse Susie King Taylor and the suffragist Silent Sentinels to critical patriotic authors like William Apess and James Baldwin.

Tracing the contested history of American patriotism also helps us better understand many of our 21st century debates: from Donald Trump's divisive deployment of celebratory and mythic forms of patriotism to the backlash to the critical patriotisms expressed by Colin Kaepernick and the 1619 Project. Only by engaging with the multiple forms of American patriotism, past and present, can we begin to move forward toward a more perfect union that we all can celebrate.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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.

"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.

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