Kümper, Hiram Mythos 1776

Traum und Erwachen der amerikanischen Nation

For U.S. domestic and foreign policy in the 21st century, references to the Declaration of Independence of 1776along with the myth of the American "quest for freedom"play a central role. This has been true more than ever since Donald Trumps return to office, an event that has fundamentally transformed the country. But were the Founding Fathers truly concerned solely with freedom, liberalism, and human rights? And what consequences does this myth entail in a present defined by political extremes and societal division? Historian Hiram Kümper analyzes the founding history and political ethos of the United Statesa nation that has been exporting its "way of life" to the world since at least the 19th century. He counters the heroic epic of a "quest for freedom" undertaken by a group of white men with a multifaceted narrative: a story of the struggle for political participationfor a share in power and the "spoils of office." In doing so, he brings into focus those who bore the cost of this national self-assurance: the millions of enslaved Black people, Indigenous peoples, and others who built America into a great nation, even as their own scope for action remained severely restricted.