After reviewing the advance copy from Netgalley, I bought a paper copy for myself. I am considering whether to review it for a magazine or journal.

American Dream and America First. They are two phrases that have always meant something exceptional to at least a portion of the population in the United States. These terms periodically pop up in the American consciousness, but what do they mean and have they always had that meaning?

Behold America held a lot of surprises for me. Let’s start with the origins of America First. It actually first became popularized during World War I and wasn’t a rallying point for isolationists, but rather neutrality. During the 1930s and 40s, the phrase was darkened with racial hues when it was taken up as a rallying cry by the KKK and other far right groups.

The American Dream meanwhile while always owing something to the idea of Americans being successful originally meant something along the lines of democracy, equality, and social justice as opposed to the more free market capitalistic version that we have understood since the Cold War.The two ideas have existed in competition and cooperation with each other depending on the era or the political season.

I think that Behold America is a meaningful explanation and challenge to Americans to understand and appreciate both how words and phrases have evolved and how that evolution has both helped and hurt political discourse throughout the decades. It also opens up a window to the current discourse because if we accept that words can have different meanings at different, they can also mean different things to people on opposite ends of the political spectrum.

I found this examination of the story behind the most contentious phrases in American history and politics – the American Dream and America First – absolutely fascinating and enlightening. Sarah Churchwell explores what it actually means to put America first, and what it is that Americans are actually dreaming about. Personal wealth? Power? Equality? Individual freedom? What happens when these values and aspirations contradict each other? Is the American Dream a shared vision or an elitist one? An exclusive or an inclusive one? Churchwell traces the roots of both concepts back to the early 19th century and demonstrates how they have shaped American society and politics, and still do to this day. A thought-provoking read indeed.

This book traces the origins of two phrases - "The American Dream" and "America First", showing how they have featured in American life - as political slogans, news editorials, essay topics and in literature good and bad - for more than 100 years. During that time, both have meant different things to different people and the author, Dr Sarah Churchwell, suggests that it's time to rediscover what they now mean to the people of a nation she believes has lost its' way.

Early in the 20th Century, people had to decide the role the USA would play in the struggle between democracy and totalitarianism. Both the American Dream and America First were employed in all of these battles. The latter slogan is nothing new. Thousands of politicians, journalist, writers and rabble rousers used it long before Donald Trump decided to take up politics.

From the late 19th Century, to the present day, "America First" has been used in the name of a vast variety of causes, some good some bad, depending on your point of view. It was, and still is, invoked by the Ku Klux Klan as well as American Nazis in the 1930's and 1940's and the promoters of the "Red Scares" which surface with monontonous regularity in American history.
From 1910 to 1920, it was used by isolationists who wanted to prevent Americans fighting in the First World War and again at the war's end when the League of Nations was formed. It has been used to enforce regulations against immigrants and the subjugation of others, particularly the country's black population. There were those who used the slogan to justify anti-Semitism, attacks on German-Americans during World War I and then Japanese-Americans in World War 2. It was used to give credence to extremes of racism, particularly ideas of the superiority of the white race and the public lynching and burning of thousands of black men and women during the 1st half of the 20th Century. Many American politicians were members of the Ku Klax Klan and filibustered an anti-lynching bill (first introduced in 1918) and similar legislation was halted until the 1930s. Between 1890 and 1952, 7 US Presidents asked Congress to pass a federal law." Not one bill was approved by the Senate mainly because of the powerful opposition of the Southern Democratic voting bloc.

Meanwhile "The American Dream" has been used to symbolise everything from Liberalism, social equality and social democracy to rampant capitalism and the worst excesses of the robber barons, along with the industrialisation of America which many believe destroyed the ideals of a nation which some wished would mean a country with a gentler, agrarian-based economy and its ethos of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. In 1900 The New York Post stated that millionaires constituted the greatest threat to the USA and that seemed to be a popular sentiment at the time. Later in the 20th Century, economic "experts" argued that the pursuit of vast wealth was no vice - greed was good.

In 1921, there were "America First" societies spread throughout the USA, advocating the boycotting of British and European goods. Sound familiar? It just goes to show there's nothing new in politics. Opponents constantly argued this stance, asking the question: "America First? - For Whom?"
Many believed that the dogged pursuit of wealth did not symbolise the American Dream, but rather valued property rights above human rights. Not surprisingly, use of the words, "The American Dream" seem to lessen during years of financial crisis.

With details from hundreds of articles from newspapers large and small, excerpts from books, varying from the works of Nelson Alger to Sinclair Lewis and even a play written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, mixed in alongside speeches made by politicians and other prominent and lesser known figures, this history shows how the meaning of both phrases have been altered to suit the ideas of whoever quotes them. Donald Trump's "slash and burn" approach to politics might seem shocking, but his constant sloganeering about making America great again has been heard countless times before.

My main criticism of this book is that I found the continual use of a myriad of written sources for these two slogans too repetitive as the author hammered her points home. Sometimes - even in a history book - there can just be too much information and too many minute details. Certainly it's not a book for the casual reader, but it is one which will definitely reward those who make a closer study of its arguments.

My thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the chance to read this book in exchange for an unbiased review.