Book Review: "Real Americans: National Identity, Violence, and the Constitution" by Jared A. Goldstein
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Summer 2023
ISSN
0032-3195
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Language
en-US
Abstract
In Real Americans, Jared Goldstein offers a bracing examination of the role played by the U.S. Constitution in the country's political consciousness. Goldstein's aim is to pierce the narrative of constitutional nationalism to show how citizens have invoked America's founding text to express “deeply conflicting conceptions of national identity” (2) and “justify hatred, violence, and exclusion” (4). He does so by exploring the beliefs of various right-wing movements that have resisted mainstream developments in basic law, as well as more diffuse social changes. Among the subjects covered: the Know Nothings, the Ku Klux Klan, the Tea Party, the ascendance of Judeo-Christian nationalism, and the modern militia movement.
Recommended Citation
Robert L. Tsai,
Book Review: "Real Americans: National Identity, Violence, and the Constitution" by Jared A. Goldstein
,
in
138
Political Science Quarterly
331
(2023).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/3975
