The article reflects on the history and mission of a magazine focused on the concept of nationhood in the U.S., particularly post-Civil War. Initially, the term 'nation' gained traction in political discourse during Abraham Lincoln's era, emphasizing unity amidst division. The magazine's founders aimed to explore American diversity through the series 'These United States', showcasing essays by notable writers about individual states, thus highlighting regional variations that contribute to the national fabric, contrary to a singular narrative of uniformity.
Adopting the name of the magazine may have been akin to what philosophers refer to as a 'speech act', meant to call into being the very thing referred to.
By the 1920s, there was still something incongruous in a magazine so named devoting hundreds of pages to an extensive meditation on each of the separate states.
The country was often depicted as 'one vast and almost uniform republic,' but that left out what made American life interesting: the variety among its federated commonwealths.
This magazine was founded to see through the struggle for a nation conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the principle of equality.
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