FYI from BATR

Lieven’s book oscillates between present and past, seeking to argue that American nationalism is part of a general trend of the modern world, while identifying its particular features. The author crosses the divides that Americans avoid: blue states to red states, North to South, secular to religious, Catholic to Protestant, mainstream Protestant to evangelical. He finds an American nationalism rooted in European beliefs that preceded emigration, hardened at the frontier by ruthless violence, and yet spared the horrors of total war.