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Kermit Roosevelt
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The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America's Story Hardcover – June 24, 2022

by Kermit Roosevelt III (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 212 ratings
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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.
 
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  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of Chicago Press
  4. Publication date
    June 24, 2022
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    022681761X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0226817613
  8. See all details
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From the Publisher

History, social justice, reconstruction
History, social justice, reconstruction

History, social justice, reconstruction

History, social justice, reconstruction

History, social justice, reconstruction

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Kermit Roosevelt III illuminates tumultuous today by examining the contentious beginning. With The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America’s Story, he thoughtfully explains our growing confusion as to what the creation meant and means.” ― Guardian

“Astute textual analysis, careful historical research, and a deep commitment to social justice make this an inspiring reexamination of America’s past.” ― Publishers Weekly

“Roosevelt proposes that we  . . .  attempt a national enterprise to atone for our original sin through targeted investment in Black and other marginalized communities, which ‘offers the possibility of a real transformation.’ . . . [The book is] a novel way of reading our founding documents and revising them as both law- and nation-building myths.”

― Kirkus, starred review

"Roosevelt argues that the conventional story of the United States, which credits the Founders for inaugurating the American project, is false. Equality, he contends, had no place in their vision. Rather, it was Reconstruction, which followed the Civil War and pursued the ideals of liberty and equality, that forged the nation Americans today inherit." ― Yale Law Report

"Roosevelt. . . challenges the prevailing narrative of the founding of the American regime." ― Choice

“The problem, argues Roosevelt, is that tying our modern egalitarian commitments to the Declaration and the founding is to say, in no uncertain terms, that our values can survive, even thrive, in a world of profound inequality and injustice.” ― The New York Times

“In The Nation That Never Was, Roosevelt argues that the Fourteenth Amendment is at the heart of our contemporary constitutional identity, and he is right to stress the revolutionary nature of the Amendment and its divergence—not convergence—from the political theory of the Declaration. He understands that the history we need to know to move forward as a country is that of secession, Reconstruction, and the post-Reconstruction era.”
  -- Jane Dailey, author of White Fright

“Roosevelt has written a truly extraordinary book. Instead of a sometimes fatuous ‘audacity of hope,’ he offers something much tougher to read and to come to terms with: the audacity of a fearless confrontation with the American past (and its possible future). He persuasively argues that we must liberate ourselves from our sentimentalized attachment to ‘the Founders’ and even to the Declaration of Independence, which he audaciously reinterprets. We should instead define our national identity around the promises (and challenges) of Reconstruction and the aspiration, yet unachieved, for a genuine regime change to replace the ‘Slaveholders’ republic’  founded on white supremacy that was the aftermath of secession from the British Empire and the drafting of the 1787 Constitution.  This book will undoubtedly be controversial. It deserves intense discussion, for if Roosevelt is right, nothing less than the future of the United States is at stake.” -- Sanford Levinson, author of Our Undemocratic Constitution

"In this brilliant book, Roosevelt asks us to trade in our standard story of America, based on founding myths about the Declaration of Independence, for a different, more complicated, and yet more hopeful story of Reconstruction. Like the Reconstruction framers, we too can build on the wreckage of the past to achieve justice not only for ourselves but for everyone, and help create the America that is to come."

  ― Jack M. Balkin, author of The Cycles of Constitutional Time

About the Author

Kermit Roosevelt III is a professor of constitutional law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. A former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice David Souter, he is the author of The Myth of Judicial Activism, as well as two novels, Allegiance and In the Shadow of the Law.
 

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press; First Edition (June 24, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 022681761X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0226817613
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 212 ratings

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Kermit Roosevelt

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I wish I'd learned to play squash earlier. Other than that, I have few complaints.

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4.6 out of 5 stars
212 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book provides an insightful perspective on American history and analyzes American exceptionalism. They describe the pacing as clear, compelling, and well-written. The book is described as a must-read for all Americans and the best political book of the last decade.

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16 customers mention "Insight"16 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's insights into American history and its theoretical perspective. They find it interesting and helpful for understanding modern racism and revisionist histories told in American history. The book provides a clear picture of truth-telling and is considered a masterwork of truth-telling.

"...It is a brave, fact-based, easily fact-checked, reality-based, tremendously-researched historical book; it is also a masterpiece of truth-telling as..." Read more

"...historical events, bringing out new details, motivations, and insights each time adding to our understanding of what American exceptionalism aspires..." Read more

"...This book is a tour de force through our political history and should be read carefully by people of my granddaughter's generation she is 17...." Read more

"The book provided enlightened insights about our nation’s Articles of Confederation, Declaration of Independence, and Constitution that I wish I had..." Read more

16 customers mention "Pacing"13 positive3 negative

Customers appreciate the book's clear and compelling writing style. They find the book readable and well-documented. The author's thoughtful, non-polemical approach to the complicated story is described as captivating.

"This book explains, in simple, understandable terms, how and why American exceptionalism regarding equality begins its long, arduous and incomplete..." Read more

"Must reading for every American. Well defended for the most part. Just be prepared to be on an island at a dinner party." Read more

"...of Independence and the lives of the Founders is explained in easy to understand terms in this brilliant book by Kermit Roosevelt III...." Read more

"This is a well-written book, which, like many of late, seek to expand our understanding of the founding documents of our country, and the history..." Read more

5 customers mention "Readability"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and consider it a must-read for Americans. They say it's well-defended and the best political book of the last decade.

"Best political book of the last decade. I recommend it to all who want a better understanding of today’s racist conservatives." Read more

"Must reading for every American. Well defended for the most part. Just be prepared to be on an island at a dinner party." Read more

"...of the Founders is explained in easy to understand terms in this brilliant book by Kermit Roosevelt III...." Read more

"Excellent book, I'm still reading it." Read more

The Nation That Never was Reconstructing America’s Story
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The Nation That Never was Reconstructing America’s Story
Painted a clear picture of the revisionist history that is told in American history.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Michael P. Williams, Esq.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking; Phenomenal
    Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    This book explains, in simple, understandable terms, how and why American exceptionalism regarding equality begins its long, arduous and incomplete journey. The journey begins not with The "Founders", nor with the Declaration of Independence, not even with the Constitution in its original form. Professor Roosevelt painstakingly demonstrates through the Founders' own words, documents and actions, that "All Men Created Equal" did not have the meaning most Americans ascribe to it today when it was originally written and adopted; that meaning was borne out of the bloody Civil War, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, The Reconstruction and the subsequent Constitution AFTER the addition of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the original Constitution. At that point, the Constitution truly begins to become the revered "Freedom Constitution" (more Amendments finally make the document truly representative of "all people are created equally" -- and this is in spite of local, state and federal governments, particularly in the southern states (but, in reality, also the entire country), conspicuously utilizing legislation, policies and practice, to thwart this "new" Constitution's aims, led by an unholy triumvirate - the Executive, Legislative and Judicial (both state and federal) branches. Part of this "anti-freedom" strategy was to "reach back" to the "Original" Constitution for guidance, blissfully, blindingly and blockheadedly ignoring the the the country's aims to create a document which TRULY represents American values, aspirations and its commitment to "All Persons Are Created Equal."

    This book is exceptionally researched; some people (particularly those like the underwear model at the 2016 RNC incredulously stating that in facing evidentiary facts to the contrary, his own facts, garnered from who knows where, are nonetheless "legitimate" because they are HIS facts," or a Trump White House "spokesperson" who gave the country (and, in doing this, gave 'cover' to the underwear model, as well as to individuals who, time and time again, will lie in the face of concrete, factual evidence) the "alternative facts" theorem which, as defined by one of political parties, means "lie, lie, lie, deny...and lie.) will inevitably question Professor Roosevelt's research because their version of American exceptionalism regarding equality differs from this book's thoroughly researched facts.

    Some may just reject the message "out of whole cloth;" this country has recently experienced the phenomenon of individuals who, not liking or agreeing with a facts based assertion, will angrily dismiss facts based assertions 'out of hand,' with no evidence or facts to back-up reasons why they take their positions and/or make their assertions.

    I fear that Professor Roosevelt's book will suffer similar "slings and arrows of misfortune" -- and, unfortunately, maybe worse. It is a brave, fact-based, easily fact-checked, reality-based, tremendously-researched historical book; it is also a masterpiece of truth-telling as to where exactly the "all persons are created equal" maxim truly came into play as part of a supposed "colorblind goal" to which most Americans say they ascribe to. Not all Americans agree, however, about how the country ameliorates decades and centuries of slavery and its progeny: state-approved lynching, Jim Crow, poll taxes, vagrancy laws, "contracts" and laws to keep former slaves working for their original masters on their original plantations, tremendous discrimination in employment, housing, wealth accumulation, access to courts, access to sue for grievances, voting (taxation without representation!), equal education pathwayhorrific violence served up by the KKK and White Citizen Councils murdering and terrorizing Black people (and other persons of color, etc., etc., etc.
    26 people found this helpful
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  • James Larimer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Important account of American Ideals
    Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    This is an important book. It analyzes American exceptionalism and the practice of individual liberty, the history of equality of opportunity and justice for all, from the Declaration of Independence to today. Based on documents from the historical record, Roosevelt argues that there have been two American Revolutions, one based on exclusive individualism, and a second based on inclusion and equal opportunity for everyone. Instead of a steady progress towards inclusive personal liberty, US history is a story of disruption, conflict, a rebellion to save slavery and deny liberty, and a second revolution, the Civil War, to extend liberty to all people, or in Lincoln’s words to establish, “a new birth of freedom” . . . “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

    There are two sets of Founders in Roosevelt’s analysis: the men of 1776 who wrote the Constitution of the 1788, the Founder’s Constitution. It made slavery legal and created an exclusive form of liberty that favored some over others. The Civil War Founders who amended the Founder’s Constitution radically changing transforming it into the Reconstruction Constitution. The Reconstruction Constitution is based upon Lincoln’s vision of an inclusive liberty, a liberty for everyone regardless of their origins. The US has still not fully realized this ideal; we continue to experience setbacks based on a struggle between factions that value one or the other of these two versions of the US Constitution.

    The Founder’s Constitution did not protect individual rights, it preserved slavery and prevented the use of taxation to benefit everyone beyond a few limited goals. “All men” referred only to men considered to be citizens of this new nation. It excluded people of color and women and anyone foreign or domestic who were not citizens. Roosevelt makes a scholarly case for this conclusion with evidence cited from the historic record.

    Instead of celebrating the birth of American ideals and our national heroes to be Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and Hamilton, Roosevelt argues that the truth birth of inclusive liberty in America came with the Reconstruction Constitution and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. We should celebrate Abraham Lincoln, Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, James Ashley, and John Bingham as national heroes, the Founders who made liberty for all individuals the core value of our nation. Later Amendments have expanded citizenship to include women and enabled the Federal government to tax income to create new benefits for every person such as Social Security and Medicare. This vision of government expands government’s role to include the happiness of all people living in the US.

    This is a sobering book based upon the historical record. Roosevelt repeatedly analyzes historical events, bringing out new details, motivations, and insights each time adding to our understanding of what American exceptionalism aspires to become.
    33 people found this helpful
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  • J. Buckner
    4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful theoretical perspective, well grounded, but less than stellar prose
    Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    If the reader is well versed in Hobbes, Locke, etc., then Roosevelt's theoretical arguments won't be surprising. This is a perspective that should have been put forth ages ago.

    But it's rather tedious to read. It would have had a greater impact if Roosevelt didn't try to counter every possible objection, real or imagined. To borrow from Umberto Eco, much of the book in an exercise in tetraplyloctomy -- the type of tedious nitpicking that one nearly always finds in contemporary legal theory -- and I think that his argument loses a bit of impact when he chases down so many various objections.

    I've a sense that because of his stellar academic qualifications, his editor was probably hesitant to suggest that, at times, the argument is blurred and less than straightforward. I just don't think it was necessary to follow down the rabbit hole, say, every possible variation on definitions of natural law. I think the editor just let things slide, and in addition to a less than clear teleology, you also see stupid oversights such as, for example, on p. 47, last paragraph, an obvious typo, "Jefferson, in fact, drew precisely drew this distinction..."

    Still it's a book that I highly recommend and am glad to have read.
    12 people found this helpful
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  • Kindle Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Book
    Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    Best political book of the last decade. I recommend it to all who want a better understanding of today’s racist conservatives.
    One person found this helpful
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  • steve
    5.0 out of 5 stars Eye opener
    Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Must reading for every American. Well defended for the most part. Just be prepared to be on an island at a dinner party.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • H. M. Tobé
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very instructive.
    Reviewed in the Netherlands on August 13, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    Instructive and clarifying.
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