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America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation's Anniversaries

by Eddie S. Glaude

National anniversaries as contested history

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Awards & Recognition

  • Bestseller

    New York Times bestseller

    The supplied metadata identifies this book as a New York Times bestseller.

  • Author recognition

    New York Times bestselling author

    Described as the New York Times bestselling author of Begin Again.

AlbakiReads Editorial

National anniversaries as contested history

Eddie S. Glaude Jr. uses America’s milestone anniversaries as a framework for examining how national celebrations shape stories about race, freedom, and the country’s past. The book brings historical voices including W.E.B. Du Bois, John Dos Passos, Herman Melville, and Martin Luther King Jr. into a wider inquiry into who gets to define the American story. Its focus on recurring historical conflicts and ideas of innocence connects commemorations across 250 years with debates about the nation’s present and future.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in race, discrimination, and the history of the United States.
  • Readers drawn to reflections on national identity and the stories told through public commemorations.
  • Readers interested in books that bring together historical writers and thinkers.

Themes

Race and American historyNational anniversaries and public memoryFreedom and innocenceWho shapes the national story

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The New York Times bestselling author of Begin Again confronts America's unfinished story in this blistering reassessment of race, freedom, and the myths that bind us.

"A thoughtful, insightful, beautifully written book that is timely and welcomed in these perilous times."--Bryan Stevenson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Just Mercy


"Eddie S. Glaude Jr. opens a necessary conversation as we reflect on the meaning of our country's 250th anniversary."--Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning author of The Hemingses of Monticello

Celebrated public intellectual Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. presents a groundbreaking analysis of the vicious 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.

America, U.S.A., deliberately formulated and beautifully written, details a heart-wrenching exploration of America's legacy. It is a magnificently complex 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. Glaude's is a powerful voice of conscience in our tumultuous world. He pulls no punches, calling on us to interrogate our conceptions of innocence and freedom and the stories we tell ourselves about our past and present.

Centered around the major celebrations of America's milestone birthdays across 250 years of history, the book offers a riveting look at the battles over who has a stake in writing the American story. Devastatingly candid, profoundly moving, and deeply reflective, America, U.S.A. is a shining meditation on how we must reckon with a grim past in order to strive for the better angels of our future.
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