[As the
author of a book on
the contested history of American patriotism, every day of 2025 feels strikingly
relevant. So for this year’s July 4th series, I wanted to share
& expand on excerpts from that book that feature models of critical
patriotism from across our history, leading up to this special post hoping for
further conversations!]
I hope
that the excerpts from Of Thee I Sing: The Contested History of American Patriotism
that I’ve shared all week have not only highlighted that book’s profound
relevance to our current moment, but have also made you excited to check out
and talk about the whole project! If that’s the case, I wanted to make one
offer and one request of y’all:
The offer
is one I’ve made many times before but always mean, now more than ever: I have
an electronic copy of the book’s proofs, and would always be happy to send it along
to anyone who’s interested. Feel free to leave a comment here or to email me ([email protected]) and
I’ll get the book to ya!
And the request,
whether you ask for a copy or not, is if you can think of communities and
audiences with whom I could talk about the book—from students/classes to libraries/museums
to book clubs/organizations to podcasts to anything and everything class—I’d
really love to hear about them, and/or for you to reach out to them and keep me
updated (again, email works great). I believe this book and all that it
includes couldn’t be more present in our current moment, and I’d love the
chance to talk about it at any and every point!
Next
series starts Monday,
Ben
PS. You
know what to do, and thanks in advance!
