The Long Revolution: Creating a United States After 1776
Review Quotes: "A precise history of commemorations of the Declaration [and] a radical redefinition."-- Financial Times Review Quotes: "A compelling vision of a Revolution that early generations of Americans viewed as fragile and incomplete."-- The...
Description
|
Review Quotes: "A precise history of commemorations of the Declaration [and] a radical redefinition." -- Financial TimesReview Quotes: "A compelling vision of a Revolution that early generations of Americans viewed as fragile and incomplete." -- The Christian Science MonitorReview Quotes: "An unexpected source of historical insights."-- Kirkus Review Quotes: "On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it is a very good idea to explore how July Fourth was celebrated in its first century. In this clever and surprising book, Nathan Perl-Rosenthal shows us that orators from all walks of life used the occasion to tell the story of the American Revolution not as something over and done but as an ongoing and unfinished transformation."-- Sophia Rosenfeld, author of The Age of Choice Review Quotes: " The Long Revolution is a timely and elegant national birthday present. At a time of backlash and complacency, Nathan Perl-Rosenthal shows us how generative and questioning the Fourth of July could be--and for whom."-- David Waldstreicher, author of The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley Biographical Note: Nathan Perl-Rosenthal is a professor of history, French and Italian, and law at the University of Southern California. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Nation, and the Los Angeles Times. The award-winning author of The Age of Revolutions and Citizen Sailors, he lives in Los Angeles and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Review Quotes: "By mining a trove of Fourth of July speeches delivered in our nation's first century, historian Nathan Perl-Rosenthal has unearthed some enduring preoccupations that Americans have had about their republic--their pride, their fears, their aspirations, but above all their conviction that the republic is an experiment requiring unremitting care. In a low, dishonest period in our history, this surprisingly timely book reminds us of our responsibilities."-- Mark Lilla, author of The Once and Future Liberal Review Quotes: "Nathan Perl-Rosenthal's delightful The Long Revolution shows how much the story of America remains unsettled--and ours to make anew. Through his remarkably close, detailed, and ultimately inspiring study of the changing meaning of the Fourth of July, he shows how the true strength of the United States isn't in any piece of parchment, but in the thousands of small towns and big cities where decade by decade Americans made the Founders' vision their own."-- Garrett M. Graff, bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky Review Quotes: "Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, a brilliant young historian, has figured out a way of performing a CT scan on the early American soul: by reviewing almost 2,500 Fourth of July orations delivered during the first hundred years of the United States. The result is a memorable, and clarifying, portrait of a nation that was still figuring out what it was--an urgent project back then, and one that we might revive now."-- Nicholas Lemann, author of Redemption Review Quotes: "This timely and thoughtful study of the evolving meanings of the American Revolution and its place in public memory and civil discourse is highly recommended." -- Library JournalReview Quotes: "Well-organized and well-illustrated... Perl-Rosenthal's descriptions of bygone July 4th celebrations can be so vivid readers will feel as though they were there." -- BooklistReview Quotes: "Illuminating. ... [Perl-Rosenthal] writes with clarity and a welcome lack of cant, and he has an eye for the telling detail." -- Wall Street JournalReview Quotes: "Wonderful ... The Long Revolution makes a smart and convincing case that the Revolution remained alive in the minds of Americans longer than we might assume." -- The New RepublicPublisher Marketing: For America 250, a provocative argument that a "Long Revolution" formed the violently beating heart of American politics for decades after 1776. "Nathan Perl-Rosenthal's delightful The Long Revolution shows how much the story of America remains unsettled--and ours to make anew." --Garrett M. Graff, bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky In the century after Independence, many Americans believed that their Revolution was still in progress. Far from a unifying national myth, the Revolution was for generations of Americans a source of radically conflicting political ideas. Nowhere was this clearer than on the Fourth of July, when Americans gathered for speeches that, as one orator put it in 1834, aimed to "examine the present, and to look forward to the future." In The Long Revolution, historian Nathan Perl-Rosenthal mines thousands of Independence Day orations to offer a stirring and revelatory new history of this long American Revolution. In the words of local notables and national celebrities, men and women, white and Black, he identifies the contrasting visions, intense anxieties, and radical power evoked by the Revolution deep into the nineteenth century. This is a history of the American founding for today's fragmented and anxious political moment, helping us find a usable past to guide us toward our own uncertain future. Review Citations:
|
The Long Revolution: Creating a United States After 1776
$36.00