Myth America

Illuminating and sharply written...Distinguished by its impressive roster of contributors and lucid arguments, this ought to be required reading. --Publishers Weekly, starred review The book's essays...are exemplary models of political and cultural history. --Slate The book's incisive essays poke holes in everything from American exceptionalism and white backlash to Confederate monuments and America First, taking us on a sobering tour through some of the nation's deepest and darkest chapters. --Vanity Fair [Myth America] brings together outstanding historians who draw on rich, often surprising recent research by themselves and others to present a much more complicated and less congratulatory picture of many of the most contentious issues in the nation's history. Moreover, these essays treat readers to wonderfully accessible, jargon-free historical writing. --Lizabeth Cohen, Washington Post An authoritative and fitting contribution to the myth-busting genre. --Carlos Lozada, New York Times Myth America's contributors take direct aim at the lies that are the lifeblood of the myths that grip American culture and politics today. This book is a collective work of courage in a time when 'truth' and 'fact' have never been so widely abused; if we believe in our craft as public historians and journalists, Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer show us the way. --David W. Blight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Frederick Douglass An extraordinary essay collection by an extraordinary group of historians--each determined to make our national history usable in all the best ways. The truth does exist, and they tell it well. Together, they make an indispensable intervention for our troubled times. --Beverly Gage, author of G-Man If you want to cling to your most cherished myths about history, this is a dangerous book. But at a time when both truth and history are under siege, Myth America has given us a blunt fact-check of many of the fictions that have come to dominate our political and cultural debates. An immensely important contribution and indispensable reference tool for confronting both the wish-casting and the disinformation about our past. --Charlie Sykes, editor in chief, The Bulwark Punching through the information overload with clear-eyed analysis, research rigor, and stylistic verve, this collection reveals the real history behind today's headlines and upends long-enduring myths. Powerful, timely, and essential. --Margaret O'Mara, author of The Code