An emotional symbol of our country’s freedom

August 22, 2009|James Sullivan

The American flag was ubiquitous in the aftermath of 9/11. Consumers spent record-breaking millions on flags - most of them manufactured in Asia. The irony was duly noted.

Why, exactly, do we invest such meaning in a piece of cloth? Comedian George Carlin, for one, questioned our patriotic custom of saluting the flag. It’s only a symbol, he said, “and I leave symbols to the symbol-minded.’’

But if the American flag is merely a symbol, it sure does pack a wallop. A visual reminder of shared emotions after the terrorist attacks, the red, white, and blue has been claimed by groups on all sides of the political debate, both for better and for worse. At various times in the nation’s history, the flag has represented anti-immigration sentiment, the abolition movement, Jim Crow, faith in capitalism, support for the military, and protesters’ claims to free speech, writes Woden Teachout in her smart new book, “Capture the Flag,’’ about its many meanings.

None of those meanings are traced to Betsy Ross, who gets a single, fleeting mention. For the author, the flag is less about sewing and the 13 original colonies than the country’s rich history of political maneuvering and the huge, vexing issues that this simple arrangement of shapes can help unfurl.

A Vermont professor who has studied and taught at Harvard, Teachout follows the evolution of the star-spangled banner through eight instructive episodes. Though these inevitably include the beginnings of the American Revolution and the Civil War, her selectivity is one of the book’s selling points, as the author devotes considerable time to less obvious events such as the anti-Irish Philadelphia riots of 1844, the crafty propaganda of the presidential election of 1896, and the so-called Hard Hat Riot over Vietnam War protests. Her focus separates the work from other books about the flag - Michael Corcoran’s “For Which It Stands’’ (2002), for instance, which documented Old Glory’s design changes and the ongoing debate about flag-burning.

As much as images of the flag are wrapped up in the American Revolution, Teachout reminds us that the actual revolutionaries flew a hodgepodge of flags. In the aftermath of the Stamp Act of 1765, when colonists began to split with the British government, flags of all kinds hung at protest rallies in Boston - yellow rattlesnake flags with the inscription “Don’t Tread on Me,’’ solid red flags of protest featuring slogans such as “Liberties of America,’’ white flags with green pine trees representing New England. “It hardly mattered which image appeared on the field,’’ she writes.