Skip content
We Are Not One People by R. Jarrod Atchison & Michael J. Lee
  Send as gift   Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks when you make the switch!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Make the switch
Libro.fm app with gift bow

Gift audiobook credit bundles

You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and your local bookstore is supported by your purchase.

Start gifting

We Are Not One People

Secession and Separatism in American Politics Since 1776

$26.24

Get for $14.99 with membership
Narrator Danny Campbell

This audiobook uses AI narration.

Weโ€™re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.

Learn more
Length 9 hours 51 minutes
Language English
  Send as gift   Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account

E pluribus unum was suggested for the national seal in 1776, but national oneness has been haunted by its opposite ever since. We Are Not One People demonstrates how the persistence of separatist movements in American history reveals as much about the nation's politics as it does the would-be separatists. Each chapter explores how great swaths of Americans of every ideological stripe, in good times and bad, in and beyond the South, have disputed the nation's oneness and stressed its divisibility. Trumpeted in American myths, mottos, movies, and songs, separatism is omnipresent in American political culture. Separatist rhetoric has shaped Americans' experience of what it means to be an American, and we can learn much about the durable appeal and enduring fragility of the United States from those who tried to leave it. As one Vermont separatist quips, leaving is as American "as apple pie."

We Are Not One People is a bold, pathbreaking, and far-reaching account of disunionists from 1776 to the present who wanted, as phrased in the Declaration of Independence, "to dissolve the political bands" connecting them to other Americans.

R. Jarrod Atchison studies argumentation and rhetoric at Wake Forest University where he is the John Kevin Medica Director of Debate. His research focuses on public argument, public address, and rhetorical history. His first book, A War of Words: The Rhetorical Leadership of Jefferson Davis, was published by the University of Alabama Press in 2017. As the Director of Debate, he works with the national championship winning Wake Forest debate program. He also teaches courses on argumentation theory, conspiracy theories, rhetorical theory and criticism, and the rhetoric of the South.

Michael J. Lee teaches and writes in the areas of political communication and rhetoric at the College of Charleston. He is particularly interested in the formation and expression of political identity in America. His research has earned over a dozen awards, including five national book awards for Creating Conservatism: Postwar Words that Made an American Movement. In the classroom, he teaches courses on eloquence, persuasion, political campaigns, journalism, and media.

A classically trained actor, director, and teacher with many regional Shakespeare plays to his credit, Danny Campbell has narrated over 150 titles and directed at least that many. He is a multiple AudioFile Earphones Award winner and was named one of AudioFile's Best of the Year 2017.

Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks when you make the switch!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Make the switch
Libro.fm app with gift bow

Gift audiobook credit bundles

You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and your local bookstore is supported by your purchase.

Start gifting