Our national anthem celebrates it. Patriots wave it. Politicians of
all kinds try to wrap themselves in it. It is saluted at baseball
games, in parades, and on the most solemn of commemorative
occasions. It was salvaged in the first hours following the
dreadful events of September 11, and it stands outstretched just
above the surface of the moon. It is, of course, the American flag,
and there are few symbols as potent. With all the reverence and
sacrifice and emotion it inspires, it is easy to lose sight of the
fact that it is ultimately just a symbol. Why is it so powerful?
Why does a piece of cloth resonate so loudly for so many? Why a
flag, and why this flag, these stripes, those stars? In For Which
It Stands, his timely, comprehensive, and engaging "biography" of
the American flag, Michael Corcoran examines those questions and
more as he explores the evolution of our most cherished emblem,
from the days preceding the Revolution through the nationwide
resurgence of patriotism in the aftermath of September 11. Corcoran
traces the entire life of the colors, holding forth on a number of
engrossing topics, including: The fluid design of the flag, the
subject of much contentious debate on the part of the founding
fathers, and until fairly recently, not officially codified. The
various alternative flags ingrained in the national consciousness,
among them the defiant, rattlesnake-adorned "Don't Tread on Me"
banner and the "Stars and Bars" of the Confederacy. The role of the
colors in war, from how to start a fight with England (raising a
flag declaring indepen-dence, high enough for the British Army in
Boston to see it, ought to do the trick) to the question of whether
to remove from the banner the stars emblematic of the states that
seceded during the Civil War, to the giddy ubiquity of the flag
following World War II. Corcoran addresses all these matters and
more (including the particularly vexing questions raised by flag
burning: Is it such an affront that it warrants a constitutional
amendment outlawing that method of protest, or is it perhaps the
single most potent expression of our right to free speech, and
therefore profoundly American?) as he delves into the wind-tangled
history of "Old Glory," an entertaining jumble of much-loved myth
and obscure facts. Thoughtful, droll, and fast-paced, For Which It
Stands definitively tells the story of America's most recognizable
icon, from Bunker Hill to Iwo Jima to Tranquillity Base -- and
beyond.
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