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Article: Rogan Kersh. Dreams of a More Perfect Union.
- Article from:
- Utopian Studies
- Article date:
- January 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Society for Utopian Studies. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Rogan Kersh. Dreams of a More Perfect Union.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001. xi + 358 pp. $39.95 (cloth).
EVERY POLITICAL STATEMENT (even this review) is measured now in terms of the events of September 11. Rogan Kersh's Dreams of More Perfect Union, published before that date, makes no prophetic statements in its measured conclusion. Nevertheless, this fine book does seem prescient. For Kersh reviews the idea of "union" in the United States from the colonial period to the 1890s. What, he asks, explains the persistent attention to the unionist idea? What values did the concept encourage and/or discourage? What forms did the idea of union ...