The American Lie

At the forefront of Begin Again, the author asserts that America was founded on the basis of lies: the country promised freedom for all, yet this freedom extended only to a few. By placing this assertion in the early pages of the text's introduction, Glaude establishes his stance. Yet the text does not merely trace America's hypocritical sociopolitical history; rather, Glaude actively seeks to confront these lies and to undo them within the same analytical space. In the latter passages of "Thinking with Jimmy," he writes: "Revealing the lie at the heart of the American idea, however, occasions an opportunity to tell a different and better story" (xxviii). The very structure of this sentence acts as a template for the structure of each chapter to come. Throughout the text Glaude reveals the lie, and then creates an opening for a new and more hopeful story.

In...