A review by paulcowdell
Inventing American Tradition: From the Mayflower to Cinco de Mayo by Jack David Eller

2.0

This started so promisingly - the theoretical introduction is hardly groundbreaking, but is a good start. Unfortunately, the book itself is then just a series of précis of previous research that get thinner and poorer the further the book goes on. By the end he's just rehashing corporate histories without any real grip on their reception/adaptation as tradition, so the conclusion is extremely weak because it's abandoned any of the interesting engagements the introduction was arguing for. I felt let down.