Today the United States, and the world, appear more divided than ever before. Are we condemned to factionalism, alienation, and ultimately democratic and global collapse? It's easy to be a critic, hard to be a good critic, and harder still to take an informed stand on the great issues of the day. In Citizens' History, we pursue a better understanding of the common good, expose assumptions masquerading as self-evident truths, and ask how the academy can better serve society. We explore the contested meanings of the core concepts of our country and world today: truth, freedom, democracy, religion, science, and capitalism. We try to distill these often acrimonious debates for a broad general audience, and to ask the most important questions: who are we and where are we going? How should we be educating our children, and ourselves? Why should anyone care about any of this?

J. Matthew Ward spent his formative years in Mississippi, where he developed a lasting interest in US history and politics. As a professional historian, he writes about the US Civil War, slavery, and gender issues. Also a historian, Padraic Rohan had previous lives as a public school teacher, a nonprofit founder and director, and a foreign correspondent in Turkey, Iraq, and Syria.