America's Jubilee

America's Jubilee: How in 1826 a Generation Remembered Fifty Years of Independence (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001) offers a portrait of a nation of twenty-four states, as citizens paused to celebrate the fiftieth Fourth of July. It introduces once nationally renowned, long since forgotten statesmen and cultural icons, telling their personal stories and highlighting their patriotism. As a study of the manipulations of historic memory, the book investigates John Adams's "last words" - Jefferson survives - as both he and Thomas Jefferson incredibly willed themselves to die, hours apart, on the day of national jubilee.