Does anyone remember reading a book called "Man without a Country" back in Jr High?

[clarice]

Does it have any relevance in today's world?

[CBGLuthier]

1. Yes. I thought it silly then and silly now.

I think the species will never evolve until we can lose our jingoism.

[clarice]

2. If I remember right....

The basic premise was about love of country...correct?
It's been a lot of years since I (had) to read it.

[Bucky]

9. If by "silly" you mean a classic of English literature, then I agree.

Love of country isn't jingoism.

[The Second Stone]

3. Yep. Our eight grade teacher read it to us as propaganda

and it stunk and made no sense. Some guy is found guilty of some crime and wishes he had wasn't a citizen, so he is sentenced to be without a country and is shipped around on a boat without citizenship. Kinda preachy and not moving.

And the teacher that read it to us was a real live FDR hating fascist and a casual acquaintance of my parents. His wife was a good drama teacher. He also forced sentence diagrams on us. On the plus side, he taught my typing class and read us "The Most Dangerous Game" which was also a pulp piece of trash, but it was fun.

[rurallib]

4. Yep - I thought it was a short story. Phillip Nolan was the guy, part of a rebellion IIRC

Saw a short of it on TCM one day. It was about a half hour show.

Does it relate to Snowden or Julian Assange in any way? Seems to have some similar themes. They pissed off powers that be and have been banished.

[csziggy]

5. It has some relevance - it was a propaganda piece

It was written to stir up support in the Union for the Civil War. Wikipedia has a good synopsis and discussion of the history of the story.

As Hale had intended, the short story created substantial support for the United States as a country, identifying the priority of the Union over the individual states, and thus pressuring readers to view Southern secession negatively. In so doing, he convinced many individuals to join, or at least support the North's effort to, as Abraham Lincoln put it, "preserve the Union."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Without_a_Country

The story can be found in the Atlantic magazine archive: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1863/12/the-man-without-a-country/308751/?single_page=true

Or at Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15868

[mackerel]

7. What kinda trailer trash junior did I go to?

We read, That was Then, This is Now and The Outsiders.

Stay gold ponyboy!

[Art_from_Ark]

8. We read That Was Then, This Is Now and The Outsiders in my junior high, too

Maybe because of our proximity to Tulsa.

The Man Without a Country was saved for high school.

[Bucky]

10. I read it on my own, not for class, and I enjoyed it.

It was sentimental story, and apparently frank expressions of emotion and loyalty are annoying to some people in this thread. The story is about a guy who was caught up on Aaron Burr's conspiracy and spent the rest of his life legally estranged from the United States. It was written as a warning against Southern secessionism in 1860.

The theme is that, even when you reject America, America is still an intimate part of you. I think that's very relevant to today's world. People who go about only criticizing, and never being grateful, for this country are not just ingrates. They are secretly patriotic since they invariably are indicting the United States for failing to live up to its own professed values. I think Snowden is a great example of a patriot--he's lost his country because he was fighting for the very values that America once pioneered.

[clarice]

11. Bucky...Holy Cow...what is this? An intelligent response???!!! We can't have THAT. lol