The fracturing of society in recent years under the strain of Donald Trump’s presidency and the racial reckoning spurred by George Floyd’s murder has had one positive consequence: A widespread awakening of interest in the American past.
Curiosity about the country’s history has been a pathway to something more bracing: Sharp arguments about the meaning of the past, and about the lessons people living today should draw from the lives of people who died long ago.
Long-forgotten lives, like…
