Uncover America’s Untold Stories on a Riveting Road Trip Through History with Beverly Gage
Reviewed by Lindsay Bennett
Inspired by America’s semiquincentennial (2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence), Pulitzer-prize winning author Beverly Gage gives us This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History (Simon & Schuster; April 2026).
Guided by her perspective as a historian (Gage teaches American History at Yale) and fueled by her love of a good road trip, Gage sets out on a journey of epic proportions, visiting thirteen different destinations in pursuit of answering a question once posed by Benjamin Franklin, namely: Is the sun rising or setting over the republic? To that end, Gage — mostly alone, but occasionally with a travel companion in tow — traverses some of this country’s most storied places. Her objective is perhaps less to answer Franklin’s question, and more to explore why it remains one.
