“American history is a quagmire, and the more one knows, the quaggier the mire gets.”
“Cherokee's American, Ned. It don't get more American than that.”
“We need a new, deeper appreciation of the ethnic histories of the American people, not a reduction of American history to ethnic histories.”
“American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.”
“So there existed fathers who dealt in the present, who didn't drag ancient history around like a ball and chain. So there were men who were not neck-deep and sinking in the quagmire of the past.”
“You know, if you're an American and you're born at this time in history especially, you're lucky. We all are. We won the world history Powerball lottery.”