A historian and author undertaking a cross-country road trip to evaluate the state of American historical consciousness leading up to the nation's 250th anniversary. Raised in Pennsylvania and teaching at Yale, she approaches her travels as an ordinary tourist to better understand how the public engages with contested historical sites. She balances her academic background with personal reflection, seeking a middle ground between uncritical patriotism and cynical condemnation.

The first US president, presented as a foundational figure who embodies the core contradictions of the nation. While he stepped down from leading a democratic republic, he returned to a Virginia plantation sustained by hundreds of enslaved people. His legacy at public sites involves an ongoing negotiation between his symbolic role as a champion of liberty and his private reality as an enslaver.

The seventh US president, whose legacy has shifted from being a celebrated champion of the common man to a symbol of settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing. He is responsible for the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which leads directly to the forced expulsion of Indigenous nations. His policies highlight the violent dispossession required to expand white patriarchal democracy.

A formerly enslaved man who becomes the nation's foremost abolitionist and a leading voice in upstate New York's reform district. He publishes the influential newspaper The North Star and argues that the nation's founding documents are essential tools for liberation. He represents a tradition of critical patriotism, demanding the country live up to its stated principles.

The founder of the Ford Motor Company, presenting deep contradictions as both a visionary industrialist and a virulent authoritarian. He creates the five-dollar day and the assembly line but fiercely suppresses labor unions using violent security forces. Obsessed with controlling his legacy, he builds Greenfield Village to present a sanitized version of American history.

A central figure of the civil-rights movement who rises to prominence during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He masterfully wields the nation's founding ideals and patriotic language to demand justice for Black Americans, aiming to redeem the country's soul. His historical legacy highlights the ongoing struggle to close the gap between legislative triumphs and true equality.

The 40th US president, whose conservative political movement emerges from the optimistic, commercially sanitized culture of Southern California. A former actor, he taps into national nostalgia, promising a bright future by recapturing a mythologized version of the past, an approach explicitly mirrored in the curation of his presidential library.

Beverly Gage's son who travels with her on parts of her journey across the United States. He represents the next generation analyzing the country's complex history, eventually moving to Washington, DC, to work as a guide for historical walking tours.

The wife of George Washington who helps manage the presidential households in New York and Philadelphia. Her reliance on enslaved labor directly conflicts with the ideals of the new republic, prompting the Washingtons to rotate enslaved staff out of Pennsylvania to evade emancipation laws.

A woman enslaved by the Washington family who serves as Martha Washington's personal attendant. Rather than face lifelong enslavement upon returning to Virginia, she self-emancipates in Philadelphia and lives the remainder of her life as a free woman in New Hampshire, successfully evading recapture.

A Founding Father and US president who authors the Declaration of Independence while simultaneously maintaining a massive plantation sustained by enslaved laborers. Modern tours of his home highlight his relationship with an enslaved woman, illustrating the severe moral hypocrisies of the nation's founders.

An enslaved woman at Monticello who is the half-sister of Thomas Jefferson's late wife. She bears at least six of Jefferson's children, and her inclusion in modern historical tours forces visitors to confront the realities of sexual exploitation and slavery embedded in the lives of the Founders.

The fourth US president whose estate, Montpelier, serves as another example of the contradictions between early American ideals and the reality of forced labor.

A man enslaved by James Madison who eventually purchases his freedom with the help of Senator Daniel Webster. He goes on to write the first White House memoir, providing a crucial perspective on the early presidency.

A Tennessee congressman who opposes Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act, a stance that costs him his political career. After declaring he is going to Texas, he joins the Texian rebels at the Alamo, where he is killed during the Mexican army's siege.

A Cherokee intellectual who invents a written language for his people. His work is part of the Cherokee Nation's broader strategy of sophisticated political and cultural resistance against US government efforts to remove them from their ancestral lands.

A pioneer of the women's rights movement who organizes the first major meeting for women's rights in the US. She drafts the Declaration of Sentiments, intentionally adapting the language of the Declaration of Independence to demand gender equality and reframe the nation's founding ideals.

A wealthy philanthropist who uses his fortune to fund numerous radical causes in the antebellum period. He supports experimental Black settlements and provides crucial financial backing for militants like John Brown, serving as an economic pillar for the era's reform movements.

An abolitionist whose frustration with pro-slavery violence leads him to embrace armed rebellion. Supported by wealthy financiers, he plans and executes a failed raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, an action that fractures his reform network and pushes the nation closer to the Civil War.

A prominent abolitionist who operates within the same interconnected circles as Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She declines to participate in John Brown's violent raid, reflecting the internal strategic divisions within the movement.

A leading women's rights pioneer who works closely with Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Her efforts help lay the groundwork for a massive shift in how American civil rights are conceptualized.

A US military general tasked with managing conflicts between incoming settlers and Indigenous communities. He violates a federal treaty by leading an expedition into the Black Hills, triggering a gold rush and the subsequent Battle of the Little Bighorn, where he and his men are killed by Lakota and allied warriors.

The wife of General George Custer, who dedicates her life after his death to crafting him into an American hero. Her efforts help establish the Last Stand myth, transforming a military defeat and treaty violation into a story of romanticized national sacrifice.

A Lakota leader who successfully guides his forces to victory against the US military at the Little Bighorn. Despite this triumph, he is eventually forced to surrender due to starvation and is later killed during a failed arrest by federal authorities threatened by the Ghost Dance revival.

A prominent Indigenous warrior and leader who helps defeat Custer's forces at the Little Bighorn. His eventual death in US custody illustrates the rapid, violent subjugation that follows the tribes' greatest victory.

An industrialist who builds a massive railroad car business and a heavily controlled company town for his employees. While providing modern amenities, he exercises strict social control and cuts wages, sparking a massive nationwide railroad strike that highlights the severe class conflicts of the era.

A labor organizer who leads the American Railway Union in a massive strike against the Pullman Company. After being imprisoned when the strike is crushed by federal troops, he emerges as a committed socialist, founding the Socialist Party and running for president multiple times to champion a working-class revolution.

A labor organizer fighting for the United Auto Workers. His brutal beating at the Battle of the Overpass exposes the violent lengths to which major corporations go to prevent unionization.

An activist whose arrest on a segregated bus ignites the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Her actions serve as the catalyst for a massive, coordinated protest that elevates the civil rights movement and brings local organizers to national prominence.

The creator of Disneyland, who constructs a nostalgic, conflict-free vision of the American past and a technologically optimistic vision of the future. His commercialized presentation of history deeply influences the nation's self-image and sets the cultural stage for the rise of the New Right in Southern California.

A US president whose political career, like Ronald Reagan's, stems from the postwar conservative movement in Southern California. His presidential library attempts to present a subtle but generally positive account of his controversial tenure, illustrating how institutions curate the legacies of polarizing figures.