Myths America Lives By : White Supremacy and the Stories That Give Us Meaning, Second Edition

Six myths lie at the heart of the American experience. Taken as aspirational, four of those myths remind us of our noblest ideals, challenging us to realize our nation's promise while galvanizing the sense of hope and unity we need to reach our goals. Misused, these myths allow for illusions of innocence that fly in the face of white supremacy, the primal American myth that stands at the heart of all the others.

"It takes a whole lot of courage for white theologians and scholars to speak the truth about race. If we had more white theologians and religion scholars like Hughes who would break their silence about white supremacy and face it for what it is, we–together–could make a better world." - James H. Cone, author of The Cross and the Lynching Tree

"The American national story is a myth, built on a series of myths that Richard Hughes reveals in this critical book. Myths America Lives By is a book we all need in order to understand ourselves, to understand our nation, to understand White supremacy." - Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

"In beautifully written, prophetic cadences, Hughes calls all white Americans to examine themselves and see the painful truth that we are all infected with the highly contagious disease of white racism. There is no other work that I am aware of that matches the wisdom of Myths America Lives By." - Harry Stout, Yale University