OF THEE I SING: THE CONTESTED HISTORY OF AMERICAN PATRIOTISM. This item is unavailable.OF THEE I SING: THE CONTESTED HISTORY OF AMERICAN PATRIOTISM

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.

Ben Railton is Professor of English Studies and Coordinator of American Studies at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts. He writes the daily AmericanStudies public scholarly blog, is a prolific public scholarly Tweeter with more than 38680 followers, and is a frequent contributor to websites such as HuffPost, Talking Points Memo, We’re History, the Washington Post’s Made by History blog, and the Saturday Evening Post, for which he has written a biweekly online column since January 2018. Dr. Railton is the author of four books, including his most recent, History and Hope in American Literature: Models of Critical Patriotism (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), a CHOICE recommended title.