For its July edition, on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the United States, Atlantic focuses on how to tell America’s story, with contributions from staff writers and editors, including Yoni Appelbaum, Ian Bogost, Sally Jenkins, Idrees Kahloon, Adrienne LaFrance, Helen Lewis, Jake Lundberg, Clint Smith, and Caity Weaver. In an editor’s note for the issue, the editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg he writes: “You will see in this edition (and, I hope, in everything we do) that our journalists are participating in the struggle for meaning, promises, achievements, and limitations of our united nation… AtlanticThe founders were that this magazine would be the seat of debate about the idea of America, and that we would strive to tell the truth about America’s greatness as well as its imperfections. That passion animates this issue—and all of our journalism.”
On the cover, Atlantic publishes Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Song of the Republic”, which was written Atlantic and it first ran in the issue of February 1862. In marching piecestaff writer and local historian Jake Lundberg explores the history of the “War Song”––written to prepare the Union and its soldiers for the terrible struggle ahead––and what it says about America itself. Lundberg writes that the poem is a description of America’s promise and a lasting exhortation on behalf of the country. “The War Song,” Lundberg says, is our unofficial national anthem, more relevant to generations than the actual song. “By the time of the Great Depression,” he writes, the “War Song” had acquired a truly national character. The status of the song is that it can be used to make a statement in a way that an official song never can.”
In the feature published todaydeputy executive editor Yoni Appelbaum examines the tortured debate—on and off campus—about how to tell the American story. He writes about the special challenge that exists in uniting a divided nation around a common understanding of our history. “For more than two centuries, our nationalism has been a source of strength, uniting Americans of diverse faiths and backgrounds,” Yoni writes. “But recently, we’ve found that it’s also dangerous.”
In tomorrow’s article, Clint Smith examines the betrayal of Black military officers, providing a powerful response to the misunderstanding of the nature of patriotism. For that story, he interviewed two dozen current enlisted, civilian, and retired Black soldiers across the military, writing, “One after another told me they’ve watched with dismay as the new administration has diminished and erased a proud history.”
These are linked to additional stories that will be published this week, including Sally Jenkins on the origins of American sports culture in the Revolution; Helen Lewis why Americans love advertising; Idrees Kahloon how poor England was like Mississippi; Caity Weaver on the American culture of promotion; and Ian Bogost on the 747, which he sees as the pinnacle of American engineering.
AtlanticThe July issue is published this week at TheAtlantic.com. Please contact us with any questions or requests.
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