About This Book
The author traces the flag's elements back to earlier European and colonial usages, arguing that colored stripes to signify union originated in the Netherlands centuries earlier and that stars appeared on flags and in a Washington family bookplate before formal adoption. He rejects the popular Betsy Ross claim as legendary, cautions against symbolic readings assigned to stripe colors, and critiques inaccurate historical paintings. Using archival evidence and contemporary documents, the study reconstructs adoption of stars and stripes as incremental, sentimental, and collective rather than the invention of a single individual.
About the Author
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