Kermit Roosevelt III: The Nation That Never Was

In his book The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America’s Story (University of Chicago Press, 2022), Kermit Roosevelt III argues that a traditional American narrative – “that our fundamental values as a country were stated in the Declaration of Independence, fought for in the Revolution, and made law in the Constitution”– is neither useful nor true.

Instead, he writes, we should look to the 19th century, to the period following Abraham Lincoln‘s Gettysburg Address, “when it was possible to envision the emergence of the nation committed to liberty and equality.”

We face a dilemma these days. We want to be honest about our history and the racism and oppression that Americans have both inflicted and endured. But we want to be proud of our country, too. In The Nation That Never Was, Roosevelt shows how we can do both those things by realizing we’re not the country we thought we were.

Reconstruction, Roosevelt argues, was not a fulfillment of the ideals of the Founding but rather a repudiation: we modern Americans are not the heirs of the Founders but of the people who overthrew and destroyed that political order. This alternate understanding of American identity opens the door to a new understanding of ourselves and our story, and ultimately to a better America.

America today is not the Founders’ America, but it can be Lincoln’s America. Roosevelt offers a powerful and inspirational rethinking of our country’s history and uncovers a shared past that we can be proud to claim and use as a foundation to work toward a country that fully embodies equality for all.

Kermit Roosevelt III, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania law school and the great-great-grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt.

The Jay Heritage Center in Rye, NY, will host Kermit Roosevelt III for a book talk on Sunday, April 23rd, at 4 pm. To register, click here.

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