"This Land is Your Land" | Reviewed by William Winkler

Yale Professor of American History Beverly Gage is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century.” Gage’s most recent book, “This Land Is your Land,” is the result of her attempt to summarize American history on the eve of the nation’s sesquicentennial.

To accomplish this, Gage took extensive road trips, 13 in number, to locales heavily invested in the history of the country. Some of her trips visited states: Texas, Virginia, South Carolina. Others concentrated on cities such as Chicago and Atlanta. At each stop she sought out sites that exemplified the moments that established the locales as turning points for American history.

Gage is careful to point out that history is messy, laden with truths that seem to contradict the notion of America’s stature as the “shining city on the hill.”

Her trip through the southern states recalls the painful moments of the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20^th century. She documents the unleashing of fire hoses and police dogs on protestors in Alabama, the murder of Detroit housewife Viola Liuzzo as she ferried demonstrators between Selma and Montgomery, and the beating and death of teenager Emmit Till because he allegedly wolf-whistled at a young white woman.

In each of her chapters she documents the positive historical events of the locations she visits, while reminding the reader of some of the unhappier events surrounding them.

In the book’s epilogue Gage reminds the reader that all of the events she has detailed received more notice than the kinder, more pedestrian goings-on in the everyday lives of those who lived through them. She expresses hope that the America of today has the resilience to reach the noble aspirations of its founders.

“This Land Is Your Land” might well be a useful primer for Americans wishing to recall America’s peaks and valleys as it prepares to celebrate its 250^th birthday.

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