如何讲述美国故事

Finding a common history that’s both unsparing and unifying has proved all but impossible in recent years. It shouldn't be. ILLUSTRATIONS BY TYLER COMRIE HOW TO TELL THE AMERICAN STORY, BY YONI APPELBAUM On a July afternoon in 2019, I found myself in a large, sun-dappled room within one of America’s great estates. An assemblage of distinguished jurists, Ivy League professors, nonprofit leaders, journalists, and theologians sat around me in a half circle. I was trying to be on my best behavior, but I blurted out a word dirty enough to make them blanch. Americans, of course, have never exactly agreed on why this country was founded or what it stands for. …