America in 25 Revolutions
The Story of Our 250-Year Quest to Become a More Perfect Union
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America in 25 Revolutions
Narrated by:
Garrett M. Graff
Buy Now for $26.73
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Narrated by:
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Garrett M. Graff
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By:
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Garrett M. Graff
Summary
The Founding was only the start. America’s history is one of revolutions, plural.
Today we recognize that America’s founding creed, “all men are created equal,” was imperfect and incomplete in 1776, but the story of how subsequent generations made those words real is more dramatic and more unpredictable than you ever guessed. As the country marks its 250th birthday, Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff offers an inspiring and challenging new account of our past—and what it means for our future.
Graff traces 25 of the most pivotal stories from America’s quest to fulfill its founding vision, immersing us in the legendary—and the forgotten—moments when ordinary champions drove revolutionary change and demanded their own place in the American experiment.
The second American revolution begins even before the first has really ended. From heated debates over the future government emerges the Bill of Rights: ten amendments that outline forty-one new rights for the growing nation. Not a right at the time? Universal suffrage. It will take nearly a century to unshackle men’s voting rights from property and income requirements, then from race (and women’s suffrage will have to wait until the twentieth century). Americans will go on to reshape their country via the ballot box, but also by creative and radical means: Sarah Winnemucca creates a nationwide pageant tour to expose corruption in the Office of Indian Affairs and call for civil service reform. Lewis Hine plies the emotional lens of photography to shock the nation into banning child labor. Upton Sinclair publishes lurid fiction and Harvey Wiley publicizes scientific research to galvanize the government to regulate the food industry that was killing consumers. John Lewis, Fannie Lou Hamer, and other Black pioneers organize public sit-ins and marches in the ’60s for the Civil Rights Movement, inspiring Frank Kameny to stage protests against queer discrimination in the ’70s and Kitty Cone to rally for the rights of Americans with disabilities in the ’80s.
The opportunities and liberties so many of us now enjoy began as acts of imagination by individuals and groups excluded from the country’s ideals. Their efforts often came at great cost; many times, revolutions failed and were set back for decades or longer, only to later triumph through surprising pivots and coalitions. America in 25 Revolutions offers a critical lesson for a trying time in the United States: Progress isn’t linear, nor is it constant, but the challenge—and hope—our country delivers to each generation is the chance to leave the country better than it was.
Without these 25 revolutions, we would not recognize our nation today; had they lost, we might not have a nation today. The figures who star in these revolutions are each Founders in their own way. Remembering their stories leaves us with restored inspiration and optimism for tomorrow, offering a rallying cry in our own time to take up the hard work of building a more perfect union.
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