Eddie S. Glaude Jr. — America, USA
Princeton professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr. examines how race shadows America's national anniversaries — the gap between commemorative myth and historical reality as the country approaches its 250th year.
Why we picked this
Glaude's 'Begin Again' was one of the essential books for understanding America's recurring cycle of racial progress and backlash — this one arrives as the country prepares its 250th anniversary celebrations, which makes the timing pointed.
Eddie S. Glaude Jr., the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton and one of the most forceful public intellectuals writing about race and American democracy, examines America, USA: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries as the country approaches its 250th year. The book traces how national commemorations — from the Centennial of 1876 to the Bicentennial of 1976 — have consistently celebrated founding ideals while eliding the realities of racial exclusion that shaped and distorted those ideals.
Glaude’s previous books, including Begin Again — a meditation on James Baldwin and the recurring American cycle of racial progress followed by backlash — and Democracy in Black, have established him as a writer who takes both American ideals and American failures seriously, rather than collapsing into either cynicism or sentimentality. His reading of the anniversary tradition is both historically grounded and politically urgent.
The timing is deliberate: 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of American independence, and the country’s self-congratulatory apparatus is already warming up. Glaude’s intervention offers a more rigorous accounting. This is an evening for readers who want to understand what the celebration will obscure.