On James Shapiro's 'The Playbook'

For a nation still comparatively young among world powers, the United States approaches its Semiquincentennial (250th birthday) with a muscular, impressive, often shameful history, cycles of progressive reform and reactionary fallout that supposedly lead to a more perfect union, forever over the horizon. And yet it’s the byways and cul-de-sacs where we find some of our country’s most revelatory episodes, fertile not only for scholars but also for popular enrichment; recent examples include the television series, Franklin, which recounts the Founder’s tenure as a diplomat in France, or Manhunt, which narrates the twelve days John Wilkes Booth eluded capture after he assassinated President Lincoln in Ford’s Theater.