To Love a Country

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On the eve of America's 250th anniversary comes a groundbreaking history of patriotism and the question of how to love a country. As the battle over American democracy plays out on the country’s streets, Dominic Erdozain’s urgent, brilliant new book brings the longstanding tension between patriotism and freedom into sharp focus. Love of country, he shows, helped create the nation and forge a national identity, but it has also drawn lines over who gets to be an American and what the country will be. Americans waved goodbye to monarchy in 1776, but patriotism—and the near-religious sense of being a chosen people—offered its own slippery slope toward tyranny. In To Love a Country, historian Dominic Erdozain shows how pride in America as the world’s leading democracy has frustrated the nation’s foundational promises. Through rigorous research and candid storytelling, he reveals how the myth of American exceptionalism has fostered