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Book Review
| Stelle e strisce: Storia di una bandiera (Stars and stripes: A history of a flag). By Arnaldo Testi. (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 2003. 141 pp. Paper, €9.50, ISBN 88-339-1492-5.) In Italian.
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| Arnaldo Testi is a professor of American history at the University of Pisa, where he resides in the department of modern and contemporary history. He is the author of several earlier books on American history and culture. In his acknowledgments he thanks his class in American history from 2000–2001 where he began his study of the extraordinary passion that Americans bring to their national symbol, the flag, especially after the tragic events of 9/11/ 01. Testi has written a remarkable little book, and, although he uses American authors in numerous citations, he has produced a very singular account of the flag's history. His chapter titles prepare us for the diversity of his subject: Totem, The Spirit of 76, Old Glory, New Cults, Flag Etiquette, God and the Flag, The Land of the Free, More Stars, etc. This book is a thought-provoking, extremely powerful account of contemporary American philosophy and behavior, with a rich reservoir of source material ranging from Washington Irving and Henry David Thoreau to Jimi Hendrix and Jasper Johns. |
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