PositiveThe Washington PostReaders may agree or disagree with Clague’s assessment — does the socially compulsory singing of a politically fraught song at a sports stadium or official ceremony really further national self-examination? — but his book matches rigorous scholarship with clear, engaging writing on a wide range of anthem-related questions ... As a musicologist, he has the vocabulary to bring melodies and specific performances alive with words, a skill he deftly uses to parse examples as diverse as the tune of the Anacreontic Song and Jimi Hendrix’s epic Banner performance at Woodstock ... Readers, again, may agree or disagree with his stance — my reading of the evidence is less sympathetic — but he presents his case competently.
Alex Von Tunzelmann
RaveThe Washington Post... [a] thoughtful and fast-paced new book ... a compelling case that scrutinizing monumental statuary is an integral part of what open societies do as they reassess past values and seek new ones to guide their futures ... a convincing, logic-driven argument that cuts through the emotional and ideological static around statue toppling, which often obscures the facts about how and why they were put up in the first place ... Statues are hulking barometers of the values of society around them. In authoritarian countries those values are imposed from above. But in a democracy, von Tunzelmann makes clear, the public has the right to continually reassess and judge them, and perhaps find them wanting.
Alan Taylor
RaveThe Washington Post... a refreshing survey of our country’s tumultuous early years ... For Americans used to the comforting myth of an exceptional union boldly leading humanity in a better direction, this account may sting. Taylor doesn’t seek to salve such pain, but neither has he written a polemic. Diligently researched, engagingly written and refreshingly framed, American Republics is an unflinching historical work that shows how far we’ve come toward achieving the ideals in the Declaration—and the deep roots of the opposition to those ideals.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay[/caption]
