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You see it everywhere: on bumper stickers, tee shirts, lapel pins, in shop windows, and in front of nearly every school or government building. Yet while the American flag is ubiquitous, as a symbol it is both heavily freighted and misunderstood.
Now an acclaimed European professor of American history brings a fresh perspective to the American flag, exploring its political, social, and cultural significance across the broad swath of its history. Mining a rich vein of materials from history, literature, music, and popular culture, Arnaldo Testi analyzes the symbolic importance of the flag to the national consciousness of this “nation of immigrants” and sees in it the very contradictions that make up our history: secularism and sacredness, freedom and empire, inclusiveness and aggressive self-confidence.
Using sources as diverse as Walt Whitman and Jimi Hendrix, and events as divergent as the American Revolution, the moon landing, and the terrorist attacks of September 11th, Testi reveals the central importance of the flag to the creation of our nation, the evolution of our national character, and the spread of American culture and power across the globe, while illustrating the varied and often conflicting meanings different Americans ascribe to it.
Whether you worship the flag or revile it, respect it or ignore it, Capture the Flag offers the reader a colorful and compelling exploration of the sway it holds on the American imagination.
— Scot M. Guenter
". . . the book touches on many interesting controversies (with the focus, as the title suggests, on exactly who owns the flag and whom it represents) and usefully presents a foreign perspective on the subject."
— R. J. Goldstein
"Testi's highly readable and enjoyable small volume covers the abundant ground that lies between Betsy Ross and the flag wars following September 11, 2001."
— Eran Shalev
"In this charming, illuminating and original history of & The Stars and Stripes,Testi provides the kind of valuable insights into national understandings that only a deeply knowledgeable and thoroughly engaged outside observer can provide."
— Ellen DuBois,University of California, Los Angeles
"In this remarkable and insightful book, Testi extricates the flag from the mists and myths that surround it. He explores its origins and uses, and when and how the displaying of the flag servedand sometimes offendeddifferent groups at different times. Finally, he brilliantly contrasts the American flags history with that of the flags of two other revolutions, the French and Communist."
— David Thelen,Indiana University
"The U.S. flag has long evoked deep emotions among Americans. Arnaldo Testis insightful book now reveals just how varied those feelings have been over the nations history. He shows how a beloved icon can reflect both the best and the worst in the American soul and tell us something about who Americans think they are as a people."
— John Bodnar,Chancellor & Professor, Indiana University
"In this dynamic work…Testi provides readers with an engaging and fresh perspective that can only be provided by an outsider standing above the fray…Testi deftly explores the shifting cultural meanings of the American symbol, from 1776 through the growth of the American empire to the contentious debates occurring today."