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This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History
A Barack Obama Summer Reading List Selection
Pulitzer Prize–winning author of G-Man and acclaimed historian Beverly Gage takes the ultimate road trip into the American past.
Ride along with Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Beverly Gage as she travels the country to see the museums, historic sites, roadside attractions, reenactments, and souvenir shops where Americans learn—and fight—about our history. From the birth of the nation in Philadelphia to Disneyland and the California dream, This Land Is Your Land offers a guided tour of thirteen places and thirteen key moments that define America’s greatest successes and challenges.
The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a document that proclaimed the liberty and equality of all human beings, but produced a country that often failed to agree upon—or live up to—those ideals. This Land Is Your Land is for everyone who wants to find that history—to experience it and confront it, to celebrate it and condemn it—in the places where it happened.
Gage shows that Americans can face their past and still love their country. Toss the book in the back seat—or listen on audio with the windows down—and join the journey.
Pulitzer Prize–winning author of G-Man and acclaimed historian Beverly Gage takes the ultimate road trip into the American past.
Ride along with Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Beverly Gage as she travels the country to see the museums, historic sites, roadside attractions, reenactments, and souvenir shops where Americans learn—and fight—about our history. From the birth of the nation in Philadelphia to Disneyland and the California dream, This Land Is Your Land offers a guided tour of thirteen places and thirteen key moments that define America’s greatest successes and challenges.
The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a document that proclaimed the liberty and equality of all human beings, but produced a country that often failed to agree upon—or live up to—those ideals. This Land Is Your Land is for everyone who wants to find that history—to experience it and confront it, to celebrate it and condemn it—in the places where it happened.
Gage shows that Americans can face their past and still love their country. Toss the book in the back seat—or listen on audio with the windows down—and join the journey.
Audible Audio
First published April 7, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 669 reviews
April 12, 2026
I really am quite sick of books like this that vilify every aspect of the founding of America. I don’t think Gage said a single positive thing about any of the first 10 presidents of the United States of America throughout this book, instead choosing to blame each and every one of them for not single-handedly ending all of slavery in America. She also found a way to somehow vilify even Union generals during the Civil War, and derided Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass for fleeing in fear of reprisal for association and not standing in solidarity with John Brown after he hacked 5 people to death.
She also disparaged almost every single museum, historic site, and attraction that she touches on, from describing Independence Hall as being small and surrounded by fences and security, to frequently saying “the US Park Service did their best, but…”, to only talking about the Museum of the American Revolution from the viewpoint of making fun of the George Washington’s Headquarters Tent exhibit, to making fun of a tour guides name badge and calling him “Volunteer” throughout the chapter, to calling the idea of the American West “one of the greatest myth-making machines in US History”, to spending a significant amount of time chastising all of Nashville, and greater Tennessee, for not fully denouncing Andrew Jackson and removing all tributes to him. I think she said nicer things about the strip malls in “Delco” PA than any of the museums, historic sites, and attractions that this book is supposedly based on.
Her retelling of the Battle of Little Big Horn has to be the most un-American thing I’ve ever heard, calling Buffalo Bill Cody a “lowly US cavalry scout”, General Custer a “ladder climbing general” and Custer‘s wife Libby “a widow attempting to make her husband an American hero”. If I was one of these historical sites that opened my doors to Gage for the research of this book, I would feel deeply hurt by how much she belittles, disparages, and minimizes the efforts of historians and thousands of volunteers who donate their time and effort to help preserve our country’s history.
I purchased this book excited to go on a roadtrip of my country, and as someone who would kill to have Gage’s opportunity to travel to all these sites (let alone get paid for it), especially during our 250th year, which Gage is clearly piggyback this book’s marketing off of. Instead, I find another example of a historian whose sole premise is to make us feel bad for being American and expect us to apologize for things that happened 250 years ago. I was highly disheartened to see Gage attempt to hijack America’s 250th birthday for her own woke narrative, and vilify the country that has given her the very rights and freedoms to freely profit from doing so.
Instead of buying this book, I wish I could visit every historical site and museum she speaks negatively about (which is virtually all of them) and give them my money instead.
She also disparaged almost every single museum, historic site, and attraction that she touches on, from describing Independence Hall as being small and surrounded by fences and security, to frequently saying “the US Park Service did their best, but…”, to only talking about the Museum of the American Revolution from the viewpoint of making fun of the George Washington’s Headquarters Tent exhibit, to making fun of a tour guides name badge and calling him “Volunteer” throughout the chapter, to calling the idea of the American West “one of the greatest myth-making machines in US History”, to spending a significant amount of time chastising all of Nashville, and greater Tennessee, for not fully denouncing Andrew Jackson and removing all tributes to him. I think she said nicer things about the strip malls in “Delco” PA than any of the museums, historic sites, and attractions that this book is supposedly based on.
Her retelling of the Battle of Little Big Horn has to be the most un-American thing I’ve ever heard, calling Buffalo Bill Cody a “lowly US cavalry scout”, General Custer a “ladder climbing general” and Custer‘s wife Libby “a widow attempting to make her husband an American hero”. If I was one of these historical sites that opened my doors to Gage for the research of this book, I would feel deeply hurt by how much she belittles, disparages, and minimizes the efforts of historians and thousands of volunteers who donate their time and effort to help preserve our country’s history.
I purchased this book excited to go on a roadtrip of my country, and as someone who would kill to have Gage’s opportunity to travel to all these sites (let alone get paid for it), especially during our 250th year, which Gage is clearly piggyback this book’s marketing off of. Instead, I find another example of a historian whose sole premise is to make us feel bad for being American and expect us to apologize for things that happened 250 years ago. I was highly disheartened to see Gage attempt to hijack America’s 250th birthday for her own woke narrative, and vilify the country that has given her the very rights and freedoms to freely profit from doing so.
Instead of buying this book, I wish I could visit every historical site and museum she speaks negatively about (which is virtually all of them) and give them my money instead.
May 20, 2026
I enjoyed taking a fascinating, historical trip across the country with Beverly Gage. Traveling to sites dating back to 1776, I discovered many interesting and unusual facts, and especially liked learning about the Carousel of Progress. The audiobook is well narrated by Gabra Zackman, with an introduction provided by the author herself.
February 6, 2026
My thanks to the author, Simon and Schuster publishers, and NetGalley for an opportunity to review an ARC of this book.
I had read the author's Pulitzer-winning bio on J. Edgar Hoover a couple of years ago, and was curious to read this book. As a lover of history I was intrigued to have the opportunity to review.
While the writing is good, and some of the stories of places the author visited are interesting, I don't agree with a lot of her statements about the US being as "big and cruel" and our flag as being a "symbol of aggression." Very disappointing. Gage wants us all to feel bad about our country's treatment of Native Americans, African Americans, and any other group she feels were wronged.
That's her opinion and that's fine. But you can't erase history and it is that history that has made America the strongest nation in the world. We are not a perfect nation by any means, but it is what it is. Too bad this book didn't get the objective assessment of the Hoover biography.
I give the book 3/5 stars.
I had read the author's Pulitzer-winning bio on J. Edgar Hoover a couple of years ago, and was curious to read this book. As a lover of history I was intrigued to have the opportunity to review.
While the writing is good, and some of the stories of places the author visited are interesting, I don't agree with a lot of her statements about the US being as "big and cruel" and our flag as being a "symbol of aggression." Very disappointing. Gage wants us all to feel bad about our country's treatment of Native Americans, African Americans, and any other group she feels were wronged.
That's her opinion and that's fine. But you can't erase history and it is that history that has made America the strongest nation in the world. We are not a perfect nation by any means, but it is what it is. Too bad this book didn't get the objective assessment of the Hoover biography.
I give the book 3/5 stars.
March 18, 2026
ARC
It’s hard at this point to feel any sort of positive feelings through the United States in this time. But as the thesis of this book makes clear This land is your(my) land and it’s our land. This trip through history via Gage’s road trips makes you see how complicated and interesting our history can be. I find it fascinating to look at how some of our historical sites have had their own history of reconciling its original view of an event with a more accurate historical view. (examples being Mount Vernon/ Little Bighorn etc.)
Due to the nature of the book this is not an intensive look at these events rather a more surface level review. But I think it’s a great starting point as there are figures, locations I want to investigate further after reading. It can be funny especially when you hear some of her travel mishaps and surprise mention of a performer who I’ll keep undisclosed for now. But it can also leave you wrought especially in the locations of South regarding civil rights and the beginnings of the Trail of Tears.
I encourage people to read this or at the very least go out and participate in going to your local historical sites and bring our history for its good and bad into your life.
It’s hard at this point to feel any sort of positive feelings through the United States in this time. But as the thesis of this book makes clear This land is your(my) land and it’s our land. This trip through history via Gage’s road trips makes you see how complicated and interesting our history can be. I find it fascinating to look at how some of our historical sites have had their own history of reconciling its original view of an event with a more accurate historical view. (examples being Mount Vernon/ Little Bighorn etc.)
Due to the nature of the book this is not an intensive look at these events rather a more surface level review. But I think it’s a great starting point as there are figures, locations I want to investigate further after reading. It can be funny especially when you hear some of her travel mishaps and surprise mention of a performer who I’ll keep undisclosed for now. But it can also leave you wrought especially in the locations of South regarding civil rights and the beginnings of the Trail of Tears.
I encourage people to read this or at the very least go out and participate in going to your local historical sites and bring our history for its good and bad into your life.
April 19, 2026
A missed opportunity. Bottom line up front: a huge disappointment. I saw this book advertised in one of the airports I passed through while making a cross country trip. I love roadtrips, I love people, I like history….but I don’t love when folks isolate themselves with their own opinion.
This book was a great opportunity to share history but also make an emotional connection to the many history sites the author visited. But - she doesn’t really talk to the people she met along the way. I’m not sure she spoke with many others along her journey. (Or if she did, their stories and personalities are absent from the book.) It’s a retelling of history facts, much of it dry as if read directly from an old school history book. She does weave in many of her personal opinions for what little personal touch is written.
If you are far left, you’ll be validated. If you’re far right, you’ll discredit the facts she does offer because the personal commentary has an edge of judgment and stereotypes. For those of us in the middle of the political spectrum? You’ll be disappointed because she missed the opportunity for connection across demographics. It felt divisive to me, rather than inspiring growth and unity.
Has a touch of privilege, being raised by educated parents and not perhaps experiencing people very different from her. Not any museums dedicated to labor in our country? Oh my. You didn’t make a stop in West Virginia. Check out the Expedition Coal Mine in Beckley, WV, or the Mine Wars Museum in Matewan, WV, showcasing The Battle of Blair Mtn - the largest labor uprising in America. But, you know, almost kinda glad she didn’t visit those as I’m not sure I could have managed her judgement of the locals.
Strong prediction the author is not fun at parties. 🤷♀️
An Audible credit not well spent for this month.
Save your credit, save your money and time, and invest in visiting a local historical site near you and talking with your neighbors…especially the ones that are different from you.
This book was a great opportunity to share history but also make an emotional connection to the many history sites the author visited. But - she doesn’t really talk to the people she met along the way. I’m not sure she spoke with many others along her journey. (Or if she did, their stories and personalities are absent from the book.) It’s a retelling of history facts, much of it dry as if read directly from an old school history book. She does weave in many of her personal opinions for what little personal touch is written.
If you are far left, you’ll be validated. If you’re far right, you’ll discredit the facts she does offer because the personal commentary has an edge of judgment and stereotypes. For those of us in the middle of the political spectrum? You’ll be disappointed because she missed the opportunity for connection across demographics. It felt divisive to me, rather than inspiring growth and unity.
Has a touch of privilege, being raised by educated parents and not perhaps experiencing people very different from her. Not any museums dedicated to labor in our country? Oh my. You didn’t make a stop in West Virginia. Check out the Expedition Coal Mine in Beckley, WV, or the Mine Wars Museum in Matewan, WV, showcasing The Battle of Blair Mtn - the largest labor uprising in America. But, you know, almost kinda glad she didn’t visit those as I’m not sure I could have managed her judgement of the locals.
Strong prediction the author is not fun at parties. 🤷♀️
An Audible credit not well spent for this month.
Save your credit, save your money and time, and invest in visiting a local historical site near you and talking with your neighbors…especially the ones that are different from you.
July 17, 2026
" . . . the powers that be in Washington seem as interested in suppressing history as understanding it."
From George Washington's tent to Knott's Berry Farm, Gage takes a historical road trip for the ages.
Along the way she visits, clutch your pearls now, Karen Snowflake, some spots that might make white people feel bad. (Aw, you poor, poor babies.) Written in 2025, her epilogue also makes an eerily prescient prediction of how lame Trump's America 250 celebration would be.
I listened to the audiobook on my daily commute, and it was pretty entertaining. I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed the book quite as much, but I'm glad both were purchased for the library where I work. (Don't worry, MAGAs - we also have the latest piece of drivel by whichever Fox News celebrity is hot this week.)
From George Washington's tent to Knott's Berry Farm, Gage takes a historical road trip for the ages.
Along the way she visits, clutch your pearls now, Karen Snowflake, some spots that might make white people feel bad. (Aw, you poor, poor babies.) Written in 2025, her epilogue also makes an eerily prescient prediction of how lame Trump's America 250 celebration would be.
I listened to the audiobook on my daily commute, and it was pretty entertaining. I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed the book quite as much, but I'm glad both were purchased for the library where I work. (Don't worry, MAGAs - we also have the latest piece of drivel by whichever Fox News celebrity is hot this week.)
September 10, 2026
A Road Trip Through History—with Plenty of Heart
Man, I sure loved this book. This Land Is Your Land is probably my favorite book of the last four weeks—and I’ve been doing a lot of reading!
This book had me from the start. Beverly Gage begins by retracing the journey George Washington made after becoming president. I was so happy that I had read Nathaniel Philbrick’s Travels with George just a few weeks earlier. The two books connected beautifully, and it was fascinating to see the same historical journey through the different eyes of Philbrick and Gage. This is one of the great pleasures of reading history: one book leads naturally into another, and each new perspective adds something to the story.
Gage road-trips her way across the United States, sometimes viewing America through a kitschy and playful lens and other times with a much more serious eye. But she always sees the country through the eyes of a historian. That perspective allows the reader to learn an incredible amount about the places she visits and the complicated history beneath them.
This is also a deeply personal book. We learn about Gage, her family, her love life, her adventures, and even her ongoing trials and tribulations with a series of Subarus. You know what? Those personal details make the book unique and beautiful. Gage isn’t simply reporting on America from a distance—she brings us along for the ride.
I’ve read so many books about the United States as part of my America at 250 project. Hey, it’s how I celebrated our semiquincentennial: lots of reading and a few fireworks! 🎇 Yet Gage still managed to teach me a great deal—not only about places like North and South Dakota, but also about my hometown of Chicago.
The book also left me with a growing list of travel ideas. I need to explore more of Chicago’s hidden historical gems, including Pullman, Hull House, and the sites associated with the Haymarket affair. I also need to travel through upstate New York to learn more about the suffragists who fought for women’s rights—and, of course, enjoy some great Buffalo wings along the way!
Everyone seems to be writing wide-angle American history these days, but few do it with as much personality, curiosity, humor, and heart as Beverly Gage. This is history written by someone who understands that the American story is found not only in monuments and museums, but also along back roads, inside family memories, and in the breakdown lane beside an unreliable Subaru.
Most of all, this book reminded me why I love this country so much. America is big, bold, a little brash, and one enormous contradiction. It is inspiring, frustrating, beautiful, and deeply complicated—and it always keeps us on our toes. Gage captures all of that while never losing sight of the human beings who make up the American story.
A unique and beautiful journey through the United States. Five enthusiastic stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
https://substack.com/@lposse1
Man, I sure loved this book. This Land Is Your Land is probably my favorite book of the last four weeks—and I’ve been doing a lot of reading!
This book had me from the start. Beverly Gage begins by retracing the journey George Washington made after becoming president. I was so happy that I had read Nathaniel Philbrick’s Travels with George just a few weeks earlier. The two books connected beautifully, and it was fascinating to see the same historical journey through the different eyes of Philbrick and Gage. This is one of the great pleasures of reading history: one book leads naturally into another, and each new perspective adds something to the story.
Gage road-trips her way across the United States, sometimes viewing America through a kitschy and playful lens and other times with a much more serious eye. But she always sees the country through the eyes of a historian. That perspective allows the reader to learn an incredible amount about the places she visits and the complicated history beneath them.
This is also a deeply personal book. We learn about Gage, her family, her love life, her adventures, and even her ongoing trials and tribulations with a series of Subarus. You know what? Those personal details make the book unique and beautiful. Gage isn’t simply reporting on America from a distance—she brings us along for the ride.
I’ve read so many books about the United States as part of my America at 250 project. Hey, it’s how I celebrated our semiquincentennial: lots of reading and a few fireworks! 🎇 Yet Gage still managed to teach me a great deal—not only about places like North and South Dakota, but also about my hometown of Chicago.
The book also left me with a growing list of travel ideas. I need to explore more of Chicago’s hidden historical gems, including Pullman, Hull House, and the sites associated with the Haymarket affair. I also need to travel through upstate New York to learn more about the suffragists who fought for women’s rights—and, of course, enjoy some great Buffalo wings along the way!
Everyone seems to be writing wide-angle American history these days, but few do it with as much personality, curiosity, humor, and heart as Beverly Gage. This is history written by someone who understands that the American story is found not only in monuments and museums, but also along back roads, inside family memories, and in the breakdown lane beside an unreliable Subaru.
Most of all, this book reminded me why I love this country so much. America is big, bold, a little brash, and one enormous contradiction. It is inspiring, frustrating, beautiful, and deeply complicated—and it always keeps us on our toes. Gage captures all of that while never losing sight of the human beings who make up the American story.
A unique and beautiful journey through the United States. Five enthusiastic stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
https://substack.com/@lposse1
February 21, 2026
Thoroughly enjoyable and educational. Gage strikes a great balance while reflecting on the historical tales connected to various locales on her road trip: a tone that is part narrative, part informative, providing meaningful background while describing her experiences at each site. And just enough humor and anecdote to increase palatability while still respecting historical significance. Loved it!
May 10, 2026
Yale historian Beverly Gage takes to the road to discover afresh the history of America just in time for 2026's Semiquincentennial Celebration. I was taught, in the sixties, American history as a story of a country with high ideals, a place that was always improving and making things better for all people. As an adult, I learned that the American history I was taught had been homogenized, that the American history I was taught was really a history of white men and their attempts to take over lands of others, a history of the exclusion of women and people of color, and a history of the wars that often emerged from the conflicts. Gage reconciles both of these few views, the overly-sweet and the bitterly-cruel, and takes a new look at some of the most well known events from American history by visiting the site of the events and researching the events and sharing both the good and bad of the past with a mind to move forward into an American future that is a manifestation of the beliefs and ideals that first brought America into fruition.
June 22, 2026
This Land is your land and this land is my land
From the California to the New York island
From the redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for your and me.
As I went a-walkin’ that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway
Saw below me that golden valley
This land was made for you and me.
I roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
All around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me. — WOODY GUTHRIE.
This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History by Pulitzer-prize winning historian Beverly Gage is an engaging travelogue of the some of the key locations in our country as we approach the 250th anniversary of the United States. While the author chooses thirteen different locations and geographical sites throughout the United States to highlight important historical and political ties to our country and its evolution in each location with each place a time in history. Her stops range from Independence Hall in Philadelphia and the Civil Rights Trail in the South to the Manzanar War Relocation Center, the secret and closed city of Los Alamos and ultimately in Disneyland as she hopscotched all over the country.
Beverly Gage teaches American history at Yale and has assembled a very thoughtful book as we delve into our history as we approach America’s 250th anniversary in a time of division and adversity in our country, perhaps unrivaled in recent times. It is through Gage’s interesting stories in these different historical locations throughout the United States as one can ponder the forces that have been dealt with throughout our tumultuous history. I would like to close with the words of Beverly Gage should we choose to embark on our own travels:
“Over the course of your travels, you’ll make some of your own history. Maybe you’ll even remake America. Woody Guthrie got it right when he said that this land is your land, from California to the New York island, from the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters. But he knew that it wasn’t just yours, or even mine; it’s our land too. Whether we like it or not—this big, cruel and transcendent country of ours—we’re in it together. Let’s make of it what we can.”
May 4, 2026
I saw the author interviewed by David Reubenstein and was hopeful that it would make for a nice audiobook for the car.
Nope…a true blue Yale professor, she must be required by law Code to find something for us to regret in almost every stop in her discovery of America. Atlanta? Let’s talk about the World of Coca Cola and be sure to point out its original cocaine content and its contribution to Fat America…..oh, Stone Mountain? A now almost irrelevant tourist site for most of the hundreds of thousands of visitors to Atlanta every year. But spend lots of words explaining the horrors.
New Mexico….did we hear about cliff dwellings, or Taos or Santa Fe. Nope…Los Alamos. And you can imagine why.
Racism everywhere, Japanese internment, AMERICA not living up to its promise. I get we need balance in our history knowledge. But this book was DOUR. And I really don’t think the author realizes it.
Every country , people, history and individual has some shortcomings. This woman would make a day at Hershey Park (which she didn’t visit) be a reason for reflection and balance and a history of shortcomings
Kill me now.
Nope…a true blue Yale professor, she must be required by law Code to find something for us to regret in almost every stop in her discovery of America. Atlanta? Let’s talk about the World of Coca Cola and be sure to point out its original cocaine content and its contribution to Fat America…..oh, Stone Mountain? A now almost irrelevant tourist site for most of the hundreds of thousands of visitors to Atlanta every year. But spend lots of words explaining the horrors.
New Mexico….did we hear about cliff dwellings, or Taos or Santa Fe. Nope…Los Alamos. And you can imagine why.
Racism everywhere, Japanese internment, AMERICA not living up to its promise. I get we need balance in our history knowledge. But this book was DOUR. And I really don’t think the author realizes it.
Every country , people, history and individual has some shortcomings. This woman would make a day at Hershey Park (which she didn’t visit) be a reason for reflection and balance and a history of shortcomings
Kill me now.
August 25, 2026
Thank you, NetGalley, for granting me a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book depressed me, both because of the content and because of what the book represents, for our culture and for historians.
Don't let the cozy cover and gimmick-y premise fool you: This Land is Your Land is neither about what unites us as Americans, nor is it a history of national historic sites. This is a book about the sins of America's past and present, framed in the language of oppression and subjugation. Of the thirteen chapters loosely organized around a place in the continental United States, nine are explicitly about the oppression of minorities throughout American history (although some would argue that this is the case for all thirteen).
Nearly every person mentioned who made one great achievement or another is discussed with a faint air of disbelief, as if implying that one can only find success by screwing over someone else (Gage takes a similarly dismissive tone towards many of the enthusiastic tour guides she encounters). FDR, though only mentioned briefly, is introduced as Eleanor Roosevelt's "philandering husband." Thomas Jefferson, as is so often the case nowadays, is defined not by his role in founding the nation but by the fact that he had sex with a slave. Gage claims that the Cherokee adopted the American style of slavery in order to assimilate with white southerners, yet fails to mention that they already practiced slavery for thousands of years before then.
These types of scornful screeds are popular among modern historians, many of whom believe that they are bravely exposing the hidden side of history that the powers that be don't want you to know about (something that Gage ironically alludes to in the prologue). There's just one problem: this style of history isn't unique, and it certainly isn't new. If anything, it's been the preferred method of historical scholarship for most of the 21st century. It is also fundamentally narcissistic. By framing our ancestors as immoral, our persistent self-flagellation signals our own virtue and moral purity. Tossing in statements about the complicity of one's own "whiteness," as Gage does here, only reinforces this.
The ironic thing about these kind of narratives is that for all they claim to challenge jingoist beliefs in American exceptionalism, they are remarkably America-centric. Gage refers to the antebellum south as the most militant slave society in history, conveniently ignoring those that existed in the ancient world, the Middle East, or even in Latin America during this same period. She presents General Grant's claim that the Mexican-American War was the greatest example in history of a larger country taking land from a smaller country without comment. The only other time she mentions Mexico is to say that they, unlike the United States, abolished slavery upon becoming a republic. Much like how supporters of American exceptionalism frequently ignore the achievements of other countries, for America's fiercest domestic critics, the rest of the world does not exist beyond acting as a prop to demonstrate the United States' inadequacies.
There are historians who are able to write about the darker chapters of American history without falling into these tropes. They do so usually by focusing on the people who lived through them and telling their stories from their perspectives, whether they be slaves, Native Americans, African Americans living under Jim Crow, or any of the millions of other people who have had to overcome adversity over the past four centuries. Going forward, I'm going to have to try harder to seek out those books and step away from ones like these.
I recently read that history book sales are down, which was attributed to the popularity of history podcasts. To all the publishers out there: did it ever occur to you that maybe it's because of the books themselves?
This book depressed me, both because of the content and because of what the book represents, for our culture and for historians.
Don't let the cozy cover and gimmick-y premise fool you: This Land is Your Land is neither about what unites us as Americans, nor is it a history of national historic sites. This is a book about the sins of America's past and present, framed in the language of oppression and subjugation. Of the thirteen chapters loosely organized around a place in the continental United States, nine are explicitly about the oppression of minorities throughout American history (although some would argue that this is the case for all thirteen).
Nearly every person mentioned who made one great achievement or another is discussed with a faint air of disbelief, as if implying that one can only find success by screwing over someone else (Gage takes a similarly dismissive tone towards many of the enthusiastic tour guides she encounters). FDR, though only mentioned briefly, is introduced as Eleanor Roosevelt's "philandering husband." Thomas Jefferson, as is so often the case nowadays, is defined not by his role in founding the nation but by the fact that he had sex with a slave. Gage claims that the Cherokee adopted the American style of slavery in order to assimilate with white southerners, yet fails to mention that they already practiced slavery for thousands of years before then.
These types of scornful screeds are popular among modern historians, many of whom believe that they are bravely exposing the hidden side of history that the powers that be don't want you to know about (something that Gage ironically alludes to in the prologue). There's just one problem: this style of history isn't unique, and it certainly isn't new. If anything, it's been the preferred method of historical scholarship for most of the 21st century. It is also fundamentally narcissistic. By framing our ancestors as immoral, our persistent self-flagellation signals our own virtue and moral purity. Tossing in statements about the complicity of one's own "whiteness," as Gage does here, only reinforces this.
The ironic thing about these kind of narratives is that for all they claim to challenge jingoist beliefs in American exceptionalism, they are remarkably America-centric. Gage refers to the antebellum south as the most militant slave society in history, conveniently ignoring those that existed in the ancient world, the Middle East, or even in Latin America during this same period. She presents General Grant's claim that the Mexican-American War was the greatest example in history of a larger country taking land from a smaller country without comment. The only other time she mentions Mexico is to say that they, unlike the United States, abolished slavery upon becoming a republic. Much like how supporters of American exceptionalism frequently ignore the achievements of other countries, for America's fiercest domestic critics, the rest of the world does not exist beyond acting as a prop to demonstrate the United States' inadequacies.
There are historians who are able to write about the darker chapters of American history without falling into these tropes. They do so usually by focusing on the people who lived through them and telling their stories from their perspectives, whether they be slaves, Native Americans, African Americans living under Jim Crow, or any of the millions of other people who have had to overcome adversity over the past four centuries. Going forward, I'm going to have to try harder to seek out those books and step away from ones like these.
I recently read that history book sales are down, which was attributed to the popularity of history podcasts. To all the publishers out there: did it ever occur to you that maybe it's because of the books themselves?
May 10, 2026
It’s 2:00 am, and I’ve just finished this book. I couldn’t put it down, even after assuring my people that I’d take it slowly. I’ve got a giant lump in my throat and tears in my eyes right now.
As I told my BFF Yvette, this woman sang the song of my people. Beverley Gage put into words so much of what I think and feel about American history. Throughout her road trip across U.S. history, she talked about the good and the bad, the bright spots and the darker moments. No piece of history was sugar-coated by her, even when she went to historic sites that did indeed sugar-coat the history.
I was reminded of two pieces of writing as I listened to this book. The first was the MLK quote about the arc of history bending toward justice. While our history is not one ceaseless march of progress, the arc does tend to bend in the right direction when looked at over the long run. It’s hard to see that now, as we are in a deeply disturbing retrograde period. But, taking in our whole history, we are slowly moving forward.
Second, I was reminded of Rick Steves’ Travel as a Political Act. Rick wrote about world travel as a means of deepening our understanding of the various peoples with whom we share this planet, thereby reaching toward a more peaceful and just world. He stressed the need to go to all types of places and to meet and listen to all kinds of people. In her own way, Gage does the same thing here with her road trip to both well-known (and well-funded) sites but also to those spots not as popular perhaps but that still have stories to tell. Her trip through the Civil Rights era offered examples, as when she visited the spot where Emmet Till’s body was dragged from the river and ignorant red neck fuckwits kept shooting up and destroying the commemorative marker. She wanted to be where the history happened, and I have that same desire.
She also counseled against letting the right-wing asshats hold the rest of us back from celebrating the nation’s 250th. Why cede the ground to these people? Why not celebrate the things worth celebrating? And there are a lot of things worth celebrating.
I’m gonna have to read/listen to this book again, especially the introduction and epilogue. They are both inspiring and thought-provoking.
Cannot recommend enough!!
As I told my BFF Yvette, this woman sang the song of my people. Beverley Gage put into words so much of what I think and feel about American history. Throughout her road trip across U.S. history, she talked about the good and the bad, the bright spots and the darker moments. No piece of history was sugar-coated by her, even when she went to historic sites that did indeed sugar-coat the history.
I was reminded of two pieces of writing as I listened to this book. The first was the MLK quote about the arc of history bending toward justice. While our history is not one ceaseless march of progress, the arc does tend to bend in the right direction when looked at over the long run. It’s hard to see that now, as we are in a deeply disturbing retrograde period. But, taking in our whole history, we are slowly moving forward.
Second, I was reminded of Rick Steves’ Travel as a Political Act. Rick wrote about world travel as a means of deepening our understanding of the various peoples with whom we share this planet, thereby reaching toward a more peaceful and just world. He stressed the need to go to all types of places and to meet and listen to all kinds of people. In her own way, Gage does the same thing here with her road trip to both well-known (and well-funded) sites but also to those spots not as popular perhaps but that still have stories to tell. Her trip through the Civil Rights era offered examples, as when she visited the spot where Emmet Till’s body was dragged from the river and ignorant red neck fuckwits kept shooting up and destroying the commemorative marker. She wanted to be where the history happened, and I have that same desire.
She also counseled against letting the right-wing asshats hold the rest of us back from celebrating the nation’s 250th. Why cede the ground to these people? Why not celebrate the things worth celebrating? And there are a lot of things worth celebrating.
I’m gonna have to read/listen to this book again, especially the introduction and epilogue. They are both inspiring and thought-provoking.
Cannot recommend enough!!
April 3, 2026
3.5
“What’s strange about our own moment,” author Beverly Gage writes, “is not that we can’t agree on our history—that’s always been the case—but that so many people seem to object to the idea that Americans have a common history at all.”
There’s an obvious poignancy in this question now, as debates about history play out in schools, libraries, museums, and elsewhere. The battle over American history is being waged everywhere, most especially in the highest places of government. As our country makes its fraught and embattled way to the 250th anniversary of its declaring independence from England, fundamental questions are being asked — not always wisely or calmly — about what the United States is: what is its character, how does it see itself, upon what foundation has it been built. And perhaps most importantly, exactly what is it that we’ll be celebrating this July Fourth?
Gage is a history professor at Yale University. Her 2002 book “G-Man,” a biography of J. Edgar Hoover, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. In “This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History,” she enters the cultural battles over history in a decidedly un-professorial manner. She drives away from archives and libraries and university lecture halls, and looks at America’s past as most American actually encounter it — in museums, historical sites and battlefields, parks, souvenir shops, and roadside attractions. In short, on road trips. Her research for the book took her to more than 300 historic sites.
In “This Land is Your Land” (a nod to Woody Guthrie’s song) she takes us to thirteen. Among them: Mount Vernon, Monticello, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Little Big Horn, Henry Ford’s Detroit, Los Alamos, Manzanar in California (site of the interment camp where Japanese Americans were held in World War 2), Fort Sumter, and others.
Each chapter begins with a single individual, some very well-known (George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, Davey Crockett, Walt Disney). From here Gage writes about that person, his or her life, the historical contexts, the many challenges — scholarly, political, cultural — that each site poses: what should be presented at the site, how should it be talked about, what should be included and what left out. (Early in the book, Gage looks back at a field trip she took in the seventh grade to “Colonial Williamsburg, the country’s largest outdoor living-history museum, where we apparently learned nothing about slavery.”)
Rather than continue with my summary, I’ll share some excerpts that capture the feel of Professor Gage’s road trip.
• The one must-see historic site in Charleston remains Fort Sumter, still out there in the harbor. And one of the first things you encounter, upon entering the mainland visitor center, is a gigantic American flag. In my road-trip experiences, the sighting of a huge American flag generally means there is a car dealership nearby.
• During the 1950s, Vegas sold itself as America’s “Atomic City,” where visitors could watch a nuclear explosion firsthand. (I’m guessing the experience would have been, um, memorable.) Not content with just learning about the missile silos, Gage spent a night in one that had been converted into an Airbnb.
• On the day I visited, Hull House was offering one-hour nap appointments in Jane Addams’s bed for one of our 21st-century versions of the precariat: the exhausted, overworked college student.
• …the National Confederate Museum is no musty, relic-strewn antiquarian society. It is a direct intervention in today’s debates over Civil War memory. displays narrate the Civil War from a neo-Confederate perspective, in which slaves “had a higher standard of living” than industrial workers, the war was fought to defend Southern honor, and the Confederacy was a model of multiethnic “diversity.”
• Graball Landing [where it is thought Emmitt Till’s corpse was found in 1955] is just not the sort of place you’d stumble on accidentally. This matters because people have gone there in recent years to desecrate the Till marker. The first sign, we learn, went up in 2008. On the eve of Barak Obama’s election someone tore it down.“By the time [a replacement sign] was taken down in 2016, it had more than three hundred bullet holes. A third sign, installed in 2019, was there for just thirty-five days when someone shot it up again.” Today the marker is made of mental and weighs nearly 500 pounds… and is bullet-proof.
In the end, Gage came away from her road trip with mixed feelings. On one hand, it was, she said, reassuring to be reminded that the country has made it through perilous times before. And on the other: “Personally, I’m nervous about the celebrations that are likely to come down from on high, since the powers that be in Washington seem as interested in suppressing history as in understanding it.”
Over all I found the book somewhat uneven but generally engaging and filled with interesting anecdotes and history.
My thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.
“What’s strange about our own moment,” author Beverly Gage writes, “is not that we can’t agree on our history—that’s always been the case—but that so many people seem to object to the idea that Americans have a common history at all.”
There’s an obvious poignancy in this question now, as debates about history play out in schools, libraries, museums, and elsewhere. The battle over American history is being waged everywhere, most especially in the highest places of government. As our country makes its fraught and embattled way to the 250th anniversary of its declaring independence from England, fundamental questions are being asked — not always wisely or calmly — about what the United States is: what is its character, how does it see itself, upon what foundation has it been built. And perhaps most importantly, exactly what is it that we’ll be celebrating this July Fourth?
Gage is a history professor at Yale University. Her 2002 book “G-Man,” a biography of J. Edgar Hoover, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. In “This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History,” she enters the cultural battles over history in a decidedly un-professorial manner. She drives away from archives and libraries and university lecture halls, and looks at America’s past as most American actually encounter it — in museums, historical sites and battlefields, parks, souvenir shops, and roadside attractions. In short, on road trips. Her research for the book took her to more than 300 historic sites.
In “This Land is Your Land” (a nod to Woody Guthrie’s song) she takes us to thirteen. Among them: Mount Vernon, Monticello, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Little Big Horn, Henry Ford’s Detroit, Los Alamos, Manzanar in California (site of the interment camp where Japanese Americans were held in World War 2), Fort Sumter, and others.
Each chapter begins with a single individual, some very well-known (George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, Davey Crockett, Walt Disney). From here Gage writes about that person, his or her life, the historical contexts, the many challenges — scholarly, political, cultural — that each site poses: what should be presented at the site, how should it be talked about, what should be included and what left out. (Early in the book, Gage looks back at a field trip she took in the seventh grade to “Colonial Williamsburg, the country’s largest outdoor living-history museum, where we apparently learned nothing about slavery.”)
Rather than continue with my summary, I’ll share some excerpts that capture the feel of Professor Gage’s road trip.
• The one must-see historic site in Charleston remains Fort Sumter, still out there in the harbor. And one of the first things you encounter, upon entering the mainland visitor center, is a gigantic American flag. In my road-trip experiences, the sighting of a huge American flag generally means there is a car dealership nearby.
• During the 1950s, Vegas sold itself as America’s “Atomic City,” where visitors could watch a nuclear explosion firsthand. (I’m guessing the experience would have been, um, memorable.) Not content with just learning about the missile silos, Gage spent a night in one that had been converted into an Airbnb.
• On the day I visited, Hull House was offering one-hour nap appointments in Jane Addams’s bed for one of our 21st-century versions of the precariat: the exhausted, overworked college student.
• …the National Confederate Museum is no musty, relic-strewn antiquarian society. It is a direct intervention in today’s debates over Civil War memory. displays narrate the Civil War from a neo-Confederate perspective, in which slaves “had a higher standard of living” than industrial workers, the war was fought to defend Southern honor, and the Confederacy was a model of multiethnic “diversity.”
• Graball Landing [where it is thought Emmitt Till’s corpse was found in 1955] is just not the sort of place you’d stumble on accidentally. This matters because people have gone there in recent years to desecrate the Till marker. The first sign, we learn, went up in 2008. On the eve of Barak Obama’s election someone tore it down.“By the time [a replacement sign] was taken down in 2016, it had more than three hundred bullet holes. A third sign, installed in 2019, was there for just thirty-five days when someone shot it up again.” Today the marker is made of mental and weighs nearly 500 pounds… and is bullet-proof.
In the end, Gage came away from her road trip with mixed feelings. On one hand, it was, she said, reassuring to be reminded that the country has made it through perilous times before. And on the other: “Personally, I’m nervous about the celebrations that are likely to come down from on high, since the powers that be in Washington seem as interested in suppressing history as in understanding it.”
Over all I found the book somewhat uneven but generally engaging and filled with interesting anecdotes and history.
My thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.
August 11, 2026
At a time when the President of the United States orders the Smithsonian Institution to post signs at exhibits reflecting his own distorted view of American history it is important to be cognizant of what really occurred in the past, its significance, and not allow a misrepresentation of what America has experienced because of the whims of one man. We must do our best to present history in an objective and factual manner and allow people to make up their own minds when thinking about our history. Describing museums, national parks, and other representations of American history and culture as woke, whatever that means, is devious and has no place in our lexicon as we celebrate our country’s 250th anniversary. In our current bifurcated political environment, it is important for historians to present our history in a meaningful and honest way a task that Yale University historian Beverly Gage and author of a phenomenal biography of J. Edgar Hoover has done with her latest work, THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND: A ROAD TRIP THROUGH US HISTORY.
Gage presents a historical travelogue encompassing thirteen sites she visited as she traveled across America. She describes it as “a guide for anyone who wants to get out there and see the American past for themselves.” Gage follows her own advice and offers a description of places on her itinerary and for each site, character, or important historical event she revisits she offers a concise historical background, an explanation of any controversies involved in the presentation of where she is visiting, and insightful commentary. Gage encourages the reader to explore our imperfect past despite the pressures to downplay the “negative aspects” of our history and put forth the courage and intellectual curiosity to ask important questions and reach their own conclusions.
The breadth of Gage’s coverage takes the reader to sites pertaining to the American Revolution and the role of George Washington, a man who personally believed that he was the unifying force to unite the states after the revolution. Gage is correct in stating that he would become the great “living symbol of America.” The reader will pass through Philadelphia, Mount Vernon, Monticello, the Hermitage, the Alamo, through the Midwest, culminating in Disneyland. Along the way she offers important commentary along with lending a personal touch to her observations. One of the major themes of the book is how these sites have been transformed to reflect the vision of certain historical figures and the myths they created in order to foster their own vision of history. The Alamo is a case in point. A major defeat for Texas and a stunning victory for Mexican General Santa Ana it was quickly transformed from a military route to an inspiring myth that stresses how the Texas Revolution brought men from a dozen states and many nations to fight for democracy making no mention of racial slavery or indigenous land rights. Gage correctly argues how the history following “Remember the Alamo” leads to the Mexican War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and created the first anti-war movement in American history led by Abraham Linclon’s Spot Resolution and the work of Henry David Thoreau. The Mexican War produced numerous states exemplifying the extension of slavery and imperial conquest.
Henry Ford, George Pullman, and Walt Disney are presented as men who wanted to create their own myths associated with their work. Gage presents brief biographies of all three, as she does with most important characters she explores, and goes on to describe each person’s vision of what the past or the future would look like. Ford does so in his Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan; the Pullman National Historical Park located on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. Established in the 1880s, it preserves America's first planned industrial company town, the site of the 1894 Pullman Strike, and key manufacturing grounds for the Pullman Palace Car Company, lastly Disneyland with its vision of the past and future in a series of grouped theme parks.
Despite the commentary of certain politicians slavery is ingrained in our history and cannot be shuffled to the side negating its impact. Gage integrates the history of slavery through a major portion of her monograph as she explores the role of Charleston, South Carolina, the work of John C. Calhoun, the abolitionist movement, John Brown’s Raid and other important components of this aspect of our history. The controversies centering around Civil War monuments and statues to southern heroes are analyzed in terms of their meaning for local populations in addition to the people who are still negatively affected by their presence.
Another negative aspect of our history that is explored is that of Native Americans and their plight in dealing with removal from areas sought by white men seeking new territory for slavery, mining interests, ranching, and a host of others. The lives and sites devoted to accomplishing their removal is fraught with massacres and forced removal under the auspices of men like President Andrew Jackson. Further, General George Armstrong Custer and Little Big Horn are visited and are another example of myth this time perpetrated by Custer’s widow, Libbie who set out to make her dead husband an American hero.
The west plays an important role in American history. After delving into Theodore Roosevelt, the Badlands, and Mount Rushmore, Gage points out that the idea that “the west is America and America is the west” dominates historical sites in the region. Further she points out that Buffalo Bill Cody did his best to ensure the meaning and identity of American history through his traveling expositions depicting a bygone era. A place Gage briefly mentions is Cody, Wyoming which houses the Smithsonian’s Buffalo Bill Center of the West, a group of five separate museums that focus on different aspects of Native American culture, America’s gun culture and other topics. Further, if you drive a few miles out of town you can visit the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, a World War II Japanese Internment camp.
Perhaps my favorite aspect of Gage’s travels is her description of the importance of upstate New York intellectually and economically in the 19th century. Her travels along the Erie Canal route and its impact are forgotten in most textbooks. In addition, Gage focuses on the work of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, among others, which produced the Underground Railroad and the Seneca Falls Convention. Interestingly as compared to sites in Virginia and Texas, sites in upstate New York are more modest.
At the end of the book Gage delves into Orange County, California and the role of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan’s presidential libraries. Nixon is important, in part because of Watergate, but more so because of our contemporary political world as he forged a republican coalition that took advantage of the Sunbelt’s booming population while drawing in disaffected white southern and northern working classes. He stressed limited government and also had an enemies list and voiced a great deal of hatred for intellectuals and anyone who crossed him. Though his popularity would collapse after he left office in 1974 his political coalition outlasted him and his mantle was in part taken by President Trump.
Today as we celebrate our 250th anniversary as a nation it is rather disingenuous for the Trump administration to cut funding and chastise the very programs and institutions that preserve our heritage be it the National Park Service, the National Archives, the National Endowment for the Humanities and many others – when I thought the government was supposed to make history accessible. The key as Gage concludes is that “much of the task of celebrating the 250th will fall to the rest of us…ordinary citizens who will have to do what we can with what we’ve got where we are,” because it appears there are forces who would like is to disregard facts and just follow along to go along.
Gage presents a historical travelogue encompassing thirteen sites she visited as she traveled across America. She describes it as “a guide for anyone who wants to get out there and see the American past for themselves.” Gage follows her own advice and offers a description of places on her itinerary and for each site, character, or important historical event she revisits she offers a concise historical background, an explanation of any controversies involved in the presentation of where she is visiting, and insightful commentary. Gage encourages the reader to explore our imperfect past despite the pressures to downplay the “negative aspects” of our history and put forth the courage and intellectual curiosity to ask important questions and reach their own conclusions.
The breadth of Gage’s coverage takes the reader to sites pertaining to the American Revolution and the role of George Washington, a man who personally believed that he was the unifying force to unite the states after the revolution. Gage is correct in stating that he would become the great “living symbol of America.” The reader will pass through Philadelphia, Mount Vernon, Monticello, the Hermitage, the Alamo, through the Midwest, culminating in Disneyland. Along the way she offers important commentary along with lending a personal touch to her observations. One of the major themes of the book is how these sites have been transformed to reflect the vision of certain historical figures and the myths they created in order to foster their own vision of history. The Alamo is a case in point. A major defeat for Texas and a stunning victory for Mexican General Santa Ana it was quickly transformed from a military route to an inspiring myth that stresses how the Texas Revolution brought men from a dozen states and many nations to fight for democracy making no mention of racial slavery or indigenous land rights. Gage correctly argues how the history following “Remember the Alamo” leads to the Mexican War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and created the first anti-war movement in American history led by Abraham Linclon’s Spot Resolution and the work of Henry David Thoreau. The Mexican War produced numerous states exemplifying the extension of slavery and imperial conquest.
Henry Ford, George Pullman, and Walt Disney are presented as men who wanted to create their own myths associated with their work. Gage presents brief biographies of all three, as she does with most important characters she explores, and goes on to describe each person’s vision of what the past or the future would look like. Ford does so in his Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan; the Pullman National Historical Park located on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. Established in the 1880s, it preserves America's first planned industrial company town, the site of the 1894 Pullman Strike, and key manufacturing grounds for the Pullman Palace Car Company, lastly Disneyland with its vision of the past and future in a series of grouped theme parks.
Despite the commentary of certain politicians slavery is ingrained in our history and cannot be shuffled to the side negating its impact. Gage integrates the history of slavery through a major portion of her monograph as she explores the role of Charleston, South Carolina, the work of John C. Calhoun, the abolitionist movement, John Brown’s Raid and other important components of this aspect of our history. The controversies centering around Civil War monuments and statues to southern heroes are analyzed in terms of their meaning for local populations in addition to the people who are still negatively affected by their presence.
Another negative aspect of our history that is explored is that of Native Americans and their plight in dealing with removal from areas sought by white men seeking new territory for slavery, mining interests, ranching, and a host of others. The lives and sites devoted to accomplishing their removal is fraught with massacres and forced removal under the auspices of men like President Andrew Jackson. Further, General George Armstrong Custer and Little Big Horn are visited and are another example of myth this time perpetrated by Custer’s widow, Libbie who set out to make her dead husband an American hero.
The west plays an important role in American history. After delving into Theodore Roosevelt, the Badlands, and Mount Rushmore, Gage points out that the idea that “the west is America and America is the west” dominates historical sites in the region. Further she points out that Buffalo Bill Cody did his best to ensure the meaning and identity of American history through his traveling expositions depicting a bygone era. A place Gage briefly mentions is Cody, Wyoming which houses the Smithsonian’s Buffalo Bill Center of the West, a group of five separate museums that focus on different aspects of Native American culture, America’s gun culture and other topics. Further, if you drive a few miles out of town you can visit the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, a World War II Japanese Internment camp.
Perhaps my favorite aspect of Gage’s travels is her description of the importance of upstate New York intellectually and economically in the 19th century. Her travels along the Erie Canal route and its impact are forgotten in most textbooks. In addition, Gage focuses on the work of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, among others, which produced the Underground Railroad and the Seneca Falls Convention. Interestingly as compared to sites in Virginia and Texas, sites in upstate New York are more modest.
At the end of the book Gage delves into Orange County, California and the role of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan’s presidential libraries. Nixon is important, in part because of Watergate, but more so because of our contemporary political world as he forged a republican coalition that took advantage of the Sunbelt’s booming population while drawing in disaffected white southern and northern working classes. He stressed limited government and also had an enemies list and voiced a great deal of hatred for intellectuals and anyone who crossed him. Though his popularity would collapse after he left office in 1974 his political coalition outlasted him and his mantle was in part taken by President Trump.
Today as we celebrate our 250th anniversary as a nation it is rather disingenuous for the Trump administration to cut funding and chastise the very programs and institutions that preserve our heritage be it the National Park Service, the National Archives, the National Endowment for the Humanities and many others – when I thought the government was supposed to make history accessible. The key as Gage concludes is that “much of the task of celebrating the 250th will fall to the rest of us…ordinary citizens who will have to do what we can with what we’ve got where we are,” because it appears there are forces who would like is to disregard facts and just follow along to go along.
February 5, 2026
gage packs a lot into a short(ish) amount of pages—spanning from the revolutionary war to essentially present day. expect a wide breadth & not a ton of depth, in the sense that she’s covering 200+ years in 350 pages. definitely think the history buffs/history curious could get a lot out of this, but i did find myself dragging thru some of this.
i wish i had the maps that look like will be a part of the official published book!!
thank you netgalley & simon and shuster for the arc!!!
i wish i had the maps that look like will be a part of the official published book!!
thank you netgalley & simon and shuster for the arc!!!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
The premise of this book is really interesting and Beverly Gage's background as a historian sets her up really well to narrate her road trip and give readers the necessary background and connect why these 13 sites are important to the present day.
I think this book is a great way to celebrate the USA's 250th birthday. In 2026, it's difficult for many of us to be proud to be American. I love the diversity of culture and the beautiful changing landscapes, and so much more, but the past (and many times present) is always lurking in the back of my mind.
I think Gage finds a great balance between being proud of the achievements and freedom fought by those that came before us as well as confronting the systemic issues that have been perpetrated for literal centuries.
I think this book is a great way to celebrate the USA's 250th birthday. In 2026, it's difficult for many of us to be proud to be American. I love the diversity of culture and the beautiful changing landscapes, and so much more, but the past (and many times present) is always lurking in the back of my mind.
I think Gage finds a great balance between being proud of the achievements and freedom fought by those that came before us as well as confronting the systemic issues that have been perpetrated for literal centuries.
June 7, 2026
After finishing this, I want to hop in my car to visit some of these sites, and others around the country. This has gotten some negative reviews due to Gage’s perspective on our country’s troubled history, but we need to learn it, reflect, & grow from it. “All the more reason to approach the semiquin not just as a birthday party for the Declaration of Independence, but as a chance to think about where we are as a country and where we might want to go” - I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. And I added many more books to my to-read list from her detailed recommended reading section.
June 12, 2026
A history professor decides to visit 13 historic sites in America and teach us a little more history in her essays about the trip. I was drawn in! Professor Gage has A Point of View – do not be surprised – but mostly she gives you a lot to think about. At Mt. Rushmore and Deadwood, North Dakota she writes: “Deadwood provides some useful object lessons in the West’s industrial past, to which all the gunfighting and gambling and prostitution were mostly sideshows…Deadwood once boasted a substantial Chinese population, drawn to the region by railroad jobs but also the chance to dig for gold and engage in other forms of commercial activity.”
While visiting Fort Sumter she shows us that this was the point of secession in the Civil War, but it also represented a coming together for a community of 15,000 formerly enslaved people who built on the Sea Islands nearby. In 1861, the Sea Islands contained a unique coalition of abolitionists, Union soldiers, and survivors. She dives deep into the history of the American South in general and you will get new insights into Stone Mountain, the Coca Cola monopoly, and the Sleeping Car Porters union. I loved her descriptions of ongoing attempts at reconciling so many painful parts of American history: “places where the politics and the history seem too combustible to be touched.”
I recognized the “delicate ballet” to which she refers when I visited Charleston, S.C. a few years ago. The immense beauty of the place is juxtaposed with the fact that its port was the disembarkation point for 40 percent of the Black people sent to America in the slave trade. Tour guides there are forthright and willing to discuss it. Professor Gage visits Dearborn, Michigan not only to explore the Henry Ford automobile story, but to investigate the impact of Ford’s recruiting a workforce in the early 1900s from Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. Ford created “Americanization” schools for them to assimilate. He also published many anti-Semitic articles during the 1930s.
The book is a little chaotic, as her visits ping-pong all over the U.S. and do not follow a timeline or a highway route. She also engages in free association when one historical topic leads her into another. I didn’t love the details about when her car broke down or her motel had bed bugs. But I relished her ability to show me new facts and new insights about many of our historical museums, monuments, and parks. She ended in Orange County, California doing a Richard Nixon retrospective at the site of his childhood home, which was next to my middle school in 1968. Then she landed on another relic from my childhood past – The Carousel of Progress! Who remembers this kitschy attraction from 1960s Disneyland? It was one of my family’s favorites, with its animatronic family rotating through decades from wood fires to fancy electric stoves. “There’s a great big, beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of every day! There’s a great big, beautiful tomorrow, and it’s only a dream away!”
While visiting Fort Sumter she shows us that this was the point of secession in the Civil War, but it also represented a coming together for a community of 15,000 formerly enslaved people who built on the Sea Islands nearby. In 1861, the Sea Islands contained a unique coalition of abolitionists, Union soldiers, and survivors. She dives deep into the history of the American South in general and you will get new insights into Stone Mountain, the Coca Cola monopoly, and the Sleeping Car Porters union. I loved her descriptions of ongoing attempts at reconciling so many painful parts of American history: “places where the politics and the history seem too combustible to be touched.”
I recognized the “delicate ballet” to which she refers when I visited Charleston, S.C. a few years ago. The immense beauty of the place is juxtaposed with the fact that its port was the disembarkation point for 40 percent of the Black people sent to America in the slave trade. Tour guides there are forthright and willing to discuss it. Professor Gage visits Dearborn, Michigan not only to explore the Henry Ford automobile story, but to investigate the impact of Ford’s recruiting a workforce in the early 1900s from Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. Ford created “Americanization” schools for them to assimilate. He also published many anti-Semitic articles during the 1930s.
The book is a little chaotic, as her visits ping-pong all over the U.S. and do not follow a timeline or a highway route. She also engages in free association when one historical topic leads her into another. I didn’t love the details about when her car broke down or her motel had bed bugs. But I relished her ability to show me new facts and new insights about many of our historical museums, monuments, and parks. She ended in Orange County, California doing a Richard Nixon retrospective at the site of his childhood home, which was next to my middle school in 1968. Then she landed on another relic from my childhood past – The Carousel of Progress! Who remembers this kitschy attraction from 1960s Disneyland? It was one of my family’s favorites, with its animatronic family rotating through decades from wood fires to fancy electric stoves. “There’s a great big, beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of every day! There’s a great big, beautiful tomorrow, and it’s only a dream away!”
June 5, 2026
My rating for this well written, engaging and personal book is based mainly on two things: 1. It contains a wealth of interesting stories about American history and 2. These stories were gathered during a series of automobile trips by the author. Ever since the book "Blue Highways" was published over 45 years ago, I have really been drawn to books about journeys, and in the case of Gage's journeys they involved her attempt to try to make sense of the nation, its past, and how its past has been presented. She organizes the chapters of the book based on the chronology of the history that she encountered, not the chronology of her trips. (For instance, her first chapter is about a series of American Revolution sites, which were not necessarily the first places she visited.) I appreciated her sensibilities about the nation's history, as well as her sense of humor and her willingness to venture into circumstances, often on her own, where others might not have felt entirely comfortable. And I must say that, as a Western New Yorker, I REALLY liked how she gushed about the history she found out about in my neck of the woods (Rochester). Up here we tend to take for granted our important history: Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, the Second Great Awakening, Seneca Falls, etc. But when she wrote that she believes that the history of this region was more significant than what she found at the Alamo or Philadelphia, more than a bit of Western New York pride swelled inside me. The book is filled with quirky and under appreciated stories, which I like. I knew that Dearborn, Michigan has the largest Muslim community and the largest mosque in the United States. After reading this book, now I know why (no spoiler here- read the book). It's not a book for everyone, but for the American History aficionados, or anyone planning a cross-country trip, this is a must read.
May 6, 2026
Reading this for me was to be reminded of two superior books that attempt similar journeys. The first is Clint Smith's outstanding How The Word is Passed, which is far more incisive about America's history of slavery. In her chapter on Montgomery, Alabama, Gage takes issue with the idea that "slavery didn't end. It evolved." She strains for false equivalence by arguing this is as equally harmful as viewpoints that erase or rewrite uncomfortable facts about America's racial history. (I'm sorry, but if you come for Bryan Stevenson, you best not miss.) The other is the more polemical The Last American Road Trip by Sarah Kendzior. Still, an amiable ride.
May 9, 2026
Gage takes us through 13 case studies of American history and explores the complex and sometimes upsetting moments in our past that have shaped the country we live in now. There was nothing wrong with this book, but I struggled to connect with it, and getting to the end felt like quite a process. All that being said, I think this is a great read for those who glorify American history or have a hard time coming to terms with the messy nature of America's colonial, slave-ridden, economically driven origins..
April 22, 2026
One, this book really reminded me of how much I took growing up outside of Philadelphia for granted. Like, the author, I’m from the suburbs of Philly (she’s from Delco, I’m from Bucks) and like Gage, I spent my childhood visiting Revolutionary-era sites like Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Valley Forge, etc. The town I’m from is small and not too well known even by people from the area so I usually explained its location as being “near Washington Crossing.” To non-locals, I clarified that with, “as in, Washington crossing the Delaware.” It wasn’t until I got older and met people who weren’t from the Northeast that I realized what a privilege it was for a kid who was interested in history to have so much of it on my doorstep, that I could actually go see the places I was learning about in my elementary school social studies classes.
Two, maybe it was the title and maybe it was the cover illustration but I really expected this to be more about the national parks, rather than the national historic sites and monuments managed by the NPS. So that was a little disappointing but I guess that’s on me.
Three, and on a similar note, but where I don’t think it was my possible misreading, this book is billed as being “the ultimate road trip to explore thirteen key places in American history.” About a decade ago I went on my own ultimate road trip across the USA, visiting about half of the states and countless National Parks, Monuments, etc. across those (and dutifully stamping my National Parks Passport). So this premise intrigued me, and I was a bit disappointed to find out that rather than one sprawling road trip the book actually follows a series of small road trips. Minor quibbles, but still, in a country as vast and sprawling as the United States the idea of a linked-up trip between these locations was part of the appeal.
In terms of content, this is a very accessible book and Beverly Gage is both a professor of history and American studies at Yale and a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer so she’s got the credentials, the knowledge, and the writing ability to make this an interesting read. Given its scope – 13 historic sites spanning 250 years over the course of ~350 pages — it is unsurprisingly a bit breadth-over-depth, so it probably depends on how many of the sites you have explored for yourself how intriguing you find it. Beginning with the chapter on Philadelphia I did not find myself immediately drawn in because, as I said above, I’ve been there, done that, many, many times over many, many years. However, the chapters on sites that I haven’t seen in person yet or spent more than a high school history class’s worth of time learning about were much more fascinating.
Unless you’re of the cult that somehow believes that any mention of American history that doesn’t laud it as eternally and unquestionably righteous is a smear (i.e. if you dare to mention slavery, the Trail of Tears, or any of the other myriad inequalities and injustices that litter our history), the idea of an “alternative” history of the United States isn’t going to be a new one (we’ve all read Zinn). But if your last engagement with American history was that high school class which may or may not have explored perspectives beyond those of the Founding Fathers and their ilk, this is a solid starting point to inspire a closer and more thorough look at some of the important sites in the nation’s existence.
Two, maybe it was the title and maybe it was the cover illustration but I really expected this to be more about the national parks, rather than the national historic sites and monuments managed by the NPS. So that was a little disappointing but I guess that’s on me.
Three, and on a similar note, but where I don’t think it was my possible misreading, this book is billed as being “the ultimate road trip to explore thirteen key places in American history.” About a decade ago I went on my own ultimate road trip across the USA, visiting about half of the states and countless National Parks, Monuments, etc. across those (and dutifully stamping my National Parks Passport). So this premise intrigued me, and I was a bit disappointed to find out that rather than one sprawling road trip the book actually follows a series of small road trips. Minor quibbles, but still, in a country as vast and sprawling as the United States the idea of a linked-up trip between these locations was part of the appeal.
In terms of content, this is a very accessible book and Beverly Gage is both a professor of history and American studies at Yale and a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer so she’s got the credentials, the knowledge, and the writing ability to make this an interesting read. Given its scope – 13 historic sites spanning 250 years over the course of ~350 pages — it is unsurprisingly a bit breadth-over-depth, so it probably depends on how many of the sites you have explored for yourself how intriguing you find it. Beginning with the chapter on Philadelphia I did not find myself immediately drawn in because, as I said above, I’ve been there, done that, many, many times over many, many years. However, the chapters on sites that I haven’t seen in person yet or spent more than a high school history class’s worth of time learning about were much more fascinating.
Unless you’re of the cult that somehow believes that any mention of American history that doesn’t laud it as eternally and unquestionably righteous is a smear (i.e. if you dare to mention slavery, the Trail of Tears, or any of the other myriad inequalities and injustices that litter our history), the idea of an “alternative” history of the United States isn’t going to be a new one (we’ve all read Zinn). But if your last engagement with American history was that high school class which may or may not have explored perspectives beyond those of the Founding Fathers and their ilk, this is a solid starting point to inspire a closer and more thorough look at some of the important sites in the nation’s existence.
May 26, 2026
2.5 rounded up. While I did learn many new facts, much of the writing was colored with the author’s opinions about the circumstances and events she was writing about. That’s okay, because it’s her book, but I would have enjoyed the road trip more with a historian’s objectivity.
April 18, 2026
A fantastic nonfiction. The road trip idea to visit historical sights is great & includes a well written overview of our nation's history & how it relates to our current affairs.
August 1, 2026
"Empathy is essential if you want to understand history -- and if you want to understand America."
In anticipation of our country's semiquincentennial, historian Beverly Gage embarks on a road trip to America's historical sites, learning how history is told in the places where it happened. She begins in Philadelphia (noting that choosing a beginning to a historical story tells a story itself) in the days of Revolution. Many regions and eras are represented in the following chapters: slavery in the mid-Atlantic states, women's rights in upstate New York (there's also a mention of the religious fervor that birthed Mormonism in that same place), the displacement of indigenous peoples in South Dakota, Japanese-American internment camps in California. There is kitschy history, like a Coca-Cola museum and the McKinley-era Main Street at Disneyland, and there's serious museums, like Legacy Museum in Montgomery, where visitors consider the trauma of the Black experience in the United States. There are places where the weird and worrisome collide, like the Cold War missile silo that's been turned into an airBnB in Roswell, New Mexico. As the author visits these places, some famous and some forgotten, she reflects on the story of America, as well as how we choose to tell that story.
As someone who loves history AND road trips, this book was right up my alley. There was lots to learn and consider in this book, and I could relate to the way history seemed to come alive when visiting historically significant sites. I have felt that wonder as I've visited places like Gettysburg and Alcatraz.
It was especially fun for me when the author mentioned places I was familiar with: Chicago, Death Valley, the Titan II missile site outside of Tucson, Mount Rushmore, Harpers Ferry. My hometown of Los Alamos gets pretty much a whole chapter and that was particularly fun for me.
I think maybe will appreciate the moderate political views of the author. While solidly pushing back on the current administration's rewriting of history, which is whitewashing away anything problematic or guilt-inducing, she also challenges the notion that we should "cancel" the founding fathers or ignore the contributions of white men. There is room for ALL the stories, she argues, and I think good historians would see the wisdom in that.
This book reminded me of the very excellent book How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith. Both books make me want to take some trips to see America!
And if my review hasn't quite persuaded you: Barack Obama had this on his Summer Reading 2026 list. It's a timely read as we celebrate our nation's 250th birthday.
Thanks to libro.fm for the ALC!
In anticipation of our country's semiquincentennial, historian Beverly Gage embarks on a road trip to America's historical sites, learning how history is told in the places where it happened. She begins in Philadelphia (noting that choosing a beginning to a historical story tells a story itself) in the days of Revolution. Many regions and eras are represented in the following chapters: slavery in the mid-Atlantic states, women's rights in upstate New York (there's also a mention of the religious fervor that birthed Mormonism in that same place), the displacement of indigenous peoples in South Dakota, Japanese-American internment camps in California. There is kitschy history, like a Coca-Cola museum and the McKinley-era Main Street at Disneyland, and there's serious museums, like Legacy Museum in Montgomery, where visitors consider the trauma of the Black experience in the United States. There are places where the weird and worrisome collide, like the Cold War missile silo that's been turned into an airBnB in Roswell, New Mexico. As the author visits these places, some famous and some forgotten, she reflects on the story of America, as well as how we choose to tell that story.
As someone who loves history AND road trips, this book was right up my alley. There was lots to learn and consider in this book, and I could relate to the way history seemed to come alive when visiting historically significant sites. I have felt that wonder as I've visited places like Gettysburg and Alcatraz.
It was especially fun for me when the author mentioned places I was familiar with: Chicago, Death Valley, the Titan II missile site outside of Tucson, Mount Rushmore, Harpers Ferry. My hometown of Los Alamos gets pretty much a whole chapter and that was particularly fun for me.
I think maybe will appreciate the moderate political views of the author. While solidly pushing back on the current administration's rewriting of history, which is whitewashing away anything problematic or guilt-inducing, she also challenges the notion that we should "cancel" the founding fathers or ignore the contributions of white men. There is room for ALL the stories, she argues, and I think good historians would see the wisdom in that.
This book reminded me of the very excellent book How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith. Both books make me want to take some trips to see America!
And if my review hasn't quite persuaded you: Barack Obama had this on his Summer Reading 2026 list. It's a timely read as we celebrate our nation's 250th birthday.
Thanks to libro.fm for the ALC!
April 25, 2026
3.5 rounded to 4 because I think more Americans should continuously learn about our history beyond 11th grade.
I listened to the audiobook. This one is tough to rate because I love history and I love travel.
Gage had the choice to either go in chronological or geographic order. She opted for chronological and that made it feel like a dry history book without a clear connection to the road trip element. A good road trip isn't complete without snacks, music, and local dialect. It would have been more immersive had she taken us on a literary road trip, dividing the country up by regions.
I listened to the audiobook. This one is tough to rate because I love history and I love travel.
Gage had the choice to either go in chronological or geographic order. She opted for chronological and that made it feel like a dry history book without a clear connection to the road trip element. A good road trip isn't complete without snacks, music, and local dialect. It would have been more immersive had she taken us on a literary road trip, dividing the country up by regions.
April 21, 2026
This is great if you have a newfound interest in history or if you want to learn more about the stories you already know. If you know a lot about history already, avoid this one. I was hoping there'd be more about some of the lesser-known historical places and events, but she pretty much sticks to the APUSH textbook, which is GREAT for most people. If you already know about Debs and Haymarket and the Trail of Tears, for example, this is not for you, but if those only sound vaguely familiar, you'll like this a lot!
July 17, 2026
This was easily a favorite read of this year. I sped ran it to make sure I could finish it before my hold ran out and damn it was just so good! What a beautiful way to retell and reckon with US history (something I give little fucks about).
I never took US history in school (#IB student slay) but this book spoke to the niche and interesting povs of history in such a beautiful, funny, tragic way!!!!!
I never took US history in school (#IB student slay) but this book spoke to the niche and interesting povs of history in such a beautiful, funny, tragic way!!!!!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I really enjoyed this book! I really liked the familiar way that Beverly Gage wrote the book, it was kind of conversational, yet informative. She is a history professor irl, so this book is definitely an approachable way to inform readers about different historical events, people, and places across the country.
The road trip is less one long car trip and more several different smaller road trips through different regions in America across a couple years. I like that she visited some lesser known regions, like upstate New York - home of the women's rights movement (Seneca Falls) and up in Detroit/Dearborn, Michigan. I am from the general area, so the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village hold some memories for me. I really enjoyed reading her take on and the history of these attractions/sites that I grew up with.
I am impressed at Beverly Gage's undertaking while dealing with bumps along the way - like the fact that she was being treated for breast cancer through some of the research of this book!! I would have really liked to read about places she could have gone to if not for car trouble or sickness. This book seems like a labor of love and I really appreciate that. I love books that talk about lesser known American history and this was a fantastic example of that.
This book is already on some lists of "most looked forward to non fiction books of 2026" for good reason. That's how I found it! I am so glad I stumbled upon it. I learned a lot about this country, it's lesser known places and people that I live in that I have seen a woefully small amount of. This Land is Your Land is definitely a five star read for me!
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The road trip is less one long car trip and more several different smaller road trips through different regions in America across a couple years. I like that she visited some lesser known regions, like upstate New York - home of the women's rights movement (Seneca Falls) and up in Detroit/Dearborn, Michigan. I am from the general area, so the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village hold some memories for me. I really enjoyed reading her take on and the history of these attractions/sites that I grew up with.
I am impressed at Beverly Gage's undertaking while dealing with bumps along the way - like the fact that she was being treated for breast cancer through some of the research of this book!! I would have really liked to read about places she could have gone to if not for car trouble or sickness. This book seems like a labor of love and I really appreciate that. I love books that talk about lesser known American history and this was a fantastic example of that.
This book is already on some lists of "most looked forward to non fiction books of 2026" for good reason. That's how I found it! I am so glad I stumbled upon it. I learned a lot about this country, it's lesser known places and people that I live in that I have seen a woefully small amount of. This Land is Your Land is definitely a five star read for me!
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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