Their expert opinions and learned works have shaped America's understanding of itself. But there are wider truths that the expert perhaps cannot capture with authority. This book is also automatically positioned outside the American establishment by the fact that it is written by an Englishman. It might be asked what an English academic at the University of Plymouth in Devonshire could have to contribute to the debate on the US presidency. However, there are certainly some advantages in being an outsider.
American history is politicized to a far greater extent than the history of any other nation.
Elements of the past, such as the treatment of native Americans, the slave trade, and the Civil War, have the potential to be highly divisive, and in dealing with the national story of the United States historians are handling potentially explosive materials. As the candidates arrived in South Carolina for the Republican primary in late February they were both asked to comment on the fact that the flag of the Confederate States flew over the state house. The flag had been flying since 1962 when it was first flown as a reminder of the Civil War, but also as a powerful symbol of the South's resistance to desegregation. The flag signaled revolt against the union and against the presidency that was backing the cause of civil rights. To have said something more partisan would have been to risk a public furor and to invite defeat at the polls.