For Which It Stands: An Anecdotal Biography of the American Flag

Simon & Schuster, 2002. Hardcover. Like New/Fine. 5x1x7. Corcoran traces the entire life of the colors, holding forth on a number of engrossing topics, including: · The fluid design of the flag, the subject of much contentious debate on the part of the founding fathers, and until fairly recently, not officially codified. · The various alternative flags ingrained in the national consciousness, among them the defiant, rattlesnake-adorned "Don't Tread on Me" banner and the "Stars and Bars" of the Confederacy. · The role of the colors in war, from how to start a fight with England (raising a flag declaring indepen-dence, high enough for the British Army in Boston to see it, ought to do the trick) to the question of whether to remove from the banner the stars emblematic of the states that seceded during the Civil War, to the giddy ubiquity of the flag following World War II. Corcoran addresses all these matters and more (including the particularly vexing questions raised by flag burning: Is it such an affront that it warrants a constitutional amendment outlawing that method of protest, or is it perhaps the single most potent expression of our right to free speech, and therefore profoundly American?) as he delves into the wind-tangled history of "Old Glory," an entertaining jumble of much-loved myth and obscure facts.