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Singer-songwriter Jesse Welles performs with members of his band in Detroit, March 10, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ted Anthony\/AP Photo\/Ted Anthony<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump speaks at Burning Hills Amphitheatre during the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opening ceremony, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Medora, N.D.<\/p>\n
Julia Demaree Nikhinson\/AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson<\/p>\n
American Flags are for sale at Jungle Jim’s International Market Eastgate in Cincinnati, Tuesday, June 30, 2026.<\/p>\n
Carolyn Kaster\/AP Photo\/Carolyn Kaster<\/p>\n
Flags are pictured in grass near a banner depicting a portrait of President Donald Trump, Thursday, July 2, 2026, on Capitol Hill in Washington.<\/p>\n
Mariam Zuhaib\/AP Photo\/Mariam Zuhaib<\/p>\n
Fireworks explode over the Lewiston Clarkston Valley during the annual Clarkston Fourth of July fireworks show on Saturday, July 4, 2026, in Lewiston, Idaho. (August Frank\/Lewiston Tribune via AP)<\/p>\n
August Frank\/August Frank\/Lewiston Tribune vi<\/p>\n
Singer-songwriter Jesse Welles performs with members of his band in Detroit, March 10, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ted Anthony\/AP Photo\/Ted Anthony<\/p>\n
A “Happy 250th Birthday” signs seen near the entrance at Lucky Patriot Fireworks in Batavia, Ohio, Tuesday, June 30, 2026.<\/p>\n
Carolyn Kaster\/AP Photo\/Carolyn Kaster<\/p>\n
DETROIT (AP) \u2014 From the beginning, many decades before it became the United States, American society was founded not on hundreds of years of common culture but on something less tangible: a series of stories that it told itself over and over \u2014 full of truth, tall tales and outright lies \u2014 until it willed itself into existence.<\/p>\n
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\u201cA city upon a hill.\u201d \u201cAll men are created equal.\u201d \u201cLife, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.\u201d Presidents splitting rails and telling the truth about chopping down cherry trees. A statesman out in a storm with a kite. And the biggest story of all, the \u201cAmerican Dream,\u201d echoing across states and oceans.<\/p>\n
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The United States became the country that produced the most powerful storytelling engines in human history \u2014 the American frontier, Hollywood and Madison Avenue. And it sat at the epicenter of the rise of the internet and social media \u2014 platforms that confused and jumbled information even as they empowered previously muzzled groups to join the fray with different takes on the American experience.<\/p>\n
Saturday marked 250 years of the Great Experiment. And even in these fragmented days, the American story means authority and influence. It means power over hearts and minds in a place where the national tale \u2014 and the question of who gets to tell it \u2014 has long prevailed. And, as is clear these days, it is the victors who write \u2014 and control \u2014 the history.<\/p>\n
Some years ago, frontier historian Richard Slotkin put it bluntly. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing organic about the United States. It\u2019s an invented country,\u201d he told The Associated Press. \u201cAnd if we stop telling the American story, we\u2019re just a bunch of folks. \u2026 You have to keep adding new chapters to the story and making the story make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
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And in politics and show business, in schools and in the history exhibited at tourist attractions, Americans do that, at a frenetic pace \u2014 sometimes, perhaps, too frantically or intensely for their own good.<\/p>\n
From the very beginning, story has ruled<\/p>\n
The United States today is home to countless stories; together they illustrate what America has been, is and could be. But when it comes to telling the American story in the 2020s, the field of play is crowded, contentious and brimming with misinformation and disinformation. From schools to political arenas, from news to entertainment to history books, the battle rages.<\/p>\n
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Is it \u201cThis Land Is Your Land,\u201d \u201cGod Bless America\u201d or \u201cCourtesy of the Red, White and Blue\u201d? Is it Sean Penn or James Woods? Tucker Carlson or Jimmy Kimmel? A bald eagle or a pride flag on your T-shirt? A pickup truck or an EV? The choices help define what kind of American you are and aspire to be.<\/p>\n
Do you buy flag trinkets at Walmart or do you express your patriotism in a different way? Do you sing along with the National Anthem at ballgames? Do you share memes about how great America is \u2014 or how awful? Do you watch old World War II movies with reverence? Each time you do any of those, you’re helping to propel the American story.<\/p>\n