This text claims that most trappings of America's national icons are modern inventions that were deeply and bitterly contested. While the Civil War determined the survival of the Union, what it meant to be an American remained an open question, as the struggle to make a nation moved off the battlefields and into cultural and political terrain. This study explores the conflict over what events and icons would be inscribed into national memory, what traditions would be invented to establish continuity with a "suitable past", who would be exemplified as national heroes, and whether ethnic, regional and other identities could co-exist with loyalty to the nation. The book traces the origins, development and consolidation of patriotic cultures in the USA, from the latter half of the 19th century, up to World War I. The author suggests that the paradox of American patriotism remains even today, and asks whether nationalism and democratic forms of citizenship are compatible.