'These Truths' takes a deep look at the relative success of the American experiment
The success of the “American experiment” – hundreds of millions of people living mostly in harmony and material comfort, in a participatory government with accountable representatives and a free press, having survived riots, world wars, and a disastrously bloody Civil War – is a natural temptation to either triumphalism or excoriation. The fact that such an experiment has worked so well only a handful of times in human history can lead to a certain smugness even in writers who should know
