Heading into the thick of the 2016 presidential campaign season, weâ??ve heard plenty from the candidates about the meaning and purpose of America. Donald Trump, to take an especially colorful example, is fond of issuing forceful, if somewhat vague, promises to â??make America great again.â?
Which implies, of course, that America has been great in the pastâ??and that, by one reckoning or another, it ought to be great once more. But even that leaves many questions unanswered. What does it mean for a nation to be great? And is national greatnessâ??even if we could agree on a consensus definitionâ??really something to be prized?
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