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How Our Words Unite, Divide, and Define a Nation
HarperOne
June 2012
On Sale: May 29, 2012
533 pages
ISBN: 0062123432
EAN: 9780062123435
Kindle: B007679Q96
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
Since Thomas Jefferson first recorded those self-evident
truths in the Declaration of Independence, America has been
a nation that has unfolded as much on the page and the
podium as on battlefields or in statehouses. Here Stephen
Prothero reveals which texts continue to generate
controversy and drive debate. He then puts these voices into
conversation, tracing how prominent leaders and thinkers of
one generation have commented upon the core texts of
another, and invites readers to join in. Few can
question that the Constitution is part of our shared
cultural lexicon, that the Supreme Court's Roe v.
Wade decision still impacts lives, or that "The
Star-Spangled Banner" informs our national identity. But
Prothero also considers lesser known texts that have sparked
our war of words, including Thomas Paine's Common
Sense and Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
In The American Bible Christopher Hitchens weighs in
on Huck Finn, and Sarah Palin on Martin Luther King
Jr. From the speeches of Presidents Lincoln, Kennedy, and
Reagan to the novels of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Ayn
Rand—Prothero takes the reader into the heart of America's
culture wars. These "scriptures" provide the words that
continue to unite, divide, and define Americans today.
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