Kermit Roosevelt III - The Nation That Never Was

The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America's Story by Kermit Roosevelt III
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First, it's hard to resist a book written by a third-generation Kermit. He narrates the audiobook himself and does it well. He uses historical events ranging from ancient Rome to 2022 to lay out his argument.

Kermit introduces a different way for a patriotic American to think about U.S. History: a new Story to replace The Standard Story.

In clear sweet prose, he explains why it could be helpful if we think of the Gettysburg Address and the post-Civil War Constitution as better founding documents than the Declaration of Independence and the original U.S. Constitution. He talks about how the U.S. Founders sacrificed justice for the sake of Unity. He admits that the political situation may not have given these original founders much choice, but their failure to plan an end to slavery resulted in, well, a lot more slavery, capped off by our Nation's bloodiest war.

The Reconstruction Congress nobly sacrificed Unity in favor of Justice, but this didn't last. Federal troops were withdrawn from the former Confederacy, leaving the country to suffer decades of injustice, oppression, lynching, and systemic racism.

Kermit ends with a rallying cry for well-meaning Americans to strive for justice.

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