“It is as if, since its very establishment, America had chosen to hold, as Napoleon would, that “history is the myth that men choose to believe.” The crypto-Machiavellians who serve as the perennial stewards of American public affairs understand that people on the whole are about as malleable as their history can be made to be. The landscape is rife with examples, from historically overarching lies and half-truths to popular culture deceits.”
