Holidays of all sorts are celebrated in the United States, many rooted in the country's great diversity of ethnicities, religions, and cultures. But one day unites all Americans: the Fourth of July. Every year, Independence Day revelers mark the founding of the nation with picnics and parades, flag-waving and fireworks displays. But in fact, much of the inherited lore that surrounds the Fourth is myth and legend, not history.

Even the date of the holiday is misleading, as the Declaration of Independence was in fact penned on the second of July. Jefferson did not write it himself, nor was it intended to mark the birth of a new nation. In this remarkable work of research and narrative, Peter de Bolla teases out the true story of the Fourth of July--and traces the holiday's history from 1776 through the Civil War, the Cold War, and the present.