America's Cultural Roots gives an overview of the country's cultural history and presents the central theme: America as a frontier and Americans as its tamers. Those whom Americans "tamed"—by subjecting them to genocide, enslavement, racism, poverty, and neglect—may feel differently, of course. But here's how Americans have described their "promised land." Proto-American self-righteous superiority First, some quotes from people who surely would've been American if America had existed then: You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a...