The Nation That Never Was

Reconstructing America's Story

By: Kermit Roosevelt

Narrated by: Kermit Roosevelt III

Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Our idea of the Founders’ America and its values is not true. We are not the heirs of the Founders, but we can be the heirs of Reconstruction and its vision for equality.

There’s a common story we tell about America: that our fundamental values as a country were stated in the Declaration of Independence, fought for in the Revolution, and made law in the Constitution. But, with the country increasingly divided, this story isn’t working for us anymore—what’s more, it’s not even true.

As Kermit Roosevelt argues in this eye-opening reinterpretation of the American story, our fundamental values, particularly equality, are not part of the vision of the Founders. Instead, they were stated in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and were the hope of Reconstruction, when it was possible to envision the emergence of the nation committed to liberty and equality.

We face a dilemma these days. We want to be honest about our history and the racism and oppression that Americans have both inflicted and endured. But we want to be proud of our country, too. In The Nation That Never Was, Roosevelt shows how we can do both those things by realizing we’re not the country we thought we were.

Reconstruction, Roosevelt argues, was not a fulfillment of the ideals of the Founding but rather a repudiation: we modern Americans are not the heirs of the Founders but of the people who overthrew and destroyed that political order. This alternate understanding of American identity opens the door to a new understanding of ourselves and our story, and ultimately to a better America.

America today is not the Founders’ America, but it can be Lincoln’s America. Roosevelt offers a powerful and inspirational rethinking of our country’s history and uncovers a shared past that we can be proud to claim and use as a foundation to work toward a country that fully embodies equality for all.

©2022 the University of Chicago (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

important

wonderful insights into the origins of our discontents with some good and important recommendations on how to move forward. But very repetitive. Bring your patience. it will be worth it.

SCOTUS

This is the best summary of our constitutional history that I have ever read. Thank you for educating me.

Thought Provoking

The term “thought provoking” gets thrown around a lot. But this is perhaps the most thought-provoking book I’ve ever read. I’m not sure I totally agree with his argument that the Founding Era America should be viewed as a totally different nation. Why can’t we just call the Civil War and Reconstruction America the Second Founding? Anyway, this book has made me think harder than any book I’ve ever read and question long-held beliefs. If that’s not worth five stars, I’m not sure what is.

Excellent Arguments

This book is a much needed antidote to the Right’s current push to censor intellectual thought around the founding of the United States. Roosevelt rightly argues that the Declaration of Independence was never meant to be mythologized into advocacy of freedom for all, and that it holds us back as a society to frame it that way. His questions and arguments are well written and persuasive, without ever feeling aggressive or condescending. He presents a powerful message for those who strive towards a more just and equal society.

Eye-opening

Roosevelt tells the story of America's founding and refounding with the thoroughness of his lawyer's profession. He discovers our nation's true principles through the text our founding documents and all of their consequences and concludes that the slaveholding perspectives are the most accurate to the text and intention. This portion of the book is so thoroughly argued that it drags a bit, but from there Roosevelt launches into a refreshing examination of the Civil War as Lincoln's Revolution, Reconstruction, the Fourteenth Amendment, and how to accomplish these advancements the Founder's constitution had to be broken and reformed, and the Declaration of Independence reinterpreted. I think what was most striking to me was thr realization that most of the legal precedence that we envision as representing the best in America are enshrined by the 14th Amendment and its revolution. That's an obvious enough conclusion before you read the book, but it is revelatory when given the legal and historical context.

I highly recommend the book as long as you can withstand the long legal discussion at it's heart.

Fresh perspective. Terse presentation

I will listen to this again.
Now curious about the articles of secession.
Waiting for Fareed Zaharia and Rachael Maddow to weigh in.

We know it to be true

This book will answer the question for you on the so-called complications of the founders. Why, we can’t put our present ideals onto the past. Because we can’t do we know they were wrong let’s stop trying to pretend. And continue with a government that actually looks at people as equal. And let’s make America.

This Must be ready and studied

This is a very important book. It is the most important book I have read in the last five years at least

A beacon of hope...

I only wanted to add that Roosevelt's voice should be at the table when we are finally forced to confront our true founding. I truly hope this work becomes our Northstar to a finally realize who we are as a Nation...a beacon of hope in written word.

Loved It

I especially like how the book draws together events that otherwise seemed singular, but instead were historically related, cause and effect, like beads on a string. It makes you think about things you thought you already knew.