ABSTRACT
A deep and sentimental nostalgia for certain images of our national past is a recurring theme in American popular culture. Remembered or imagined settings are forever desired, forever recalled-yet hidden beneath a coat of sugary icing, concealing their reality.1 It is easy to call up some of these images: the warm kitchen of a prosperous farmhouse, filled with loving care and the rich aroma of apple pie; the summer days of a traditional country boyhood, quintessentially carefree and rebellious; the whole-hearted patriotism of a small-town Fourth of July, glowing with pride and community solidarity; a legislature or constitutional convention of the early republic, where wise and thoughtful representatives sat solemnly to weigh the needs of their neighbors and make rational decisions for the good of all. Another such recollected setting is the one-room country school, home to happy, well-behaved children and ideal teacher.
