Description:
This is a book I have long awaited, one that tells the life of a single building so as to illuminate American history from almost every angle--cultural, social, and political.--Mary Ryan, author of Civic Wars: Democracy and Public Life in the American City During the Nineteenth Century
Review Quotes: "A fascinating portrait that illuminates the connection between collective memory and history, investigates how traditions and heritage emerge and change, and examines how a heterogeneous society constructs and preserves its history. The book reveals Independence Hall, the most revered symbol of the American republic, as a place of contradiction, where the nation's ideals have been both defined and contested, expanded and limited."-- "Pennsylvania Heritage"