From the beginning, many decades before it became the United States, American society was founded not on hundreds of years of common culture but on something less tangible: a series of stories that it told itself over and over — full of truth, tall tales and outright lies — until it willed itself into existence.
“A city upon a hill.” “All men are created equal.” “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Presidents splitting rails and telling the truth about chopping down cherry trees. A statesman out in a storm with a kite. And the biggest story of all, the “American Dream,” echoing across states and oceans.
