Barnes & NobleThe Constitution of the United States of America and Other Classic American Documents by Various Authors

Beautiful book- Concerning message

This book is high quality and beautifully laid out. It is what it says: a collection of primary source documents each with a short paragraph introduction. HOWEVER: The selection of which primary sources to include matters. The book paints a picture whereby slavery and racism is a problem of the distant past, rather than something experience by people alive today; there are people alive today who remember the civil rights act of 1965 being passed. The civil rights movement is not included in any way. The most recent related document is Brown v Board of education in 1954, and nothing for the decade of strife after. This paints a picture that in 1954 America solved racism by desegregating, rather than the reality of violent conflict which has followed. There were many eloquent leaders throughout the civil rights movement any one of whose speeches might have been considered pivotal not least of whom MLK Jr’s I have a dream speech. As I could not find info on the authors, this feels like a piece of propaganda designed to fit a certain narrative of America. America as a beacon of light which has overcome its dark past, rather than what it is: a great yet flawed nation still overcoming racism and fascism within and without and always getting closer to the ideals which it stands for.