America's founding ideals of equality, freedom and minimal government have often been exactly that-ideals which she has sometimes ignored or eliminated. How did a country declaring these principles endorse slavery for 90 years? How did all Americans voluntarily enslave themselves to establish a permanent income tax and a vast bureaucracy to collect it? There are been less fundamental errors: military mistakes in many wars, urban decay and riots, overregulation of business, and political indoctrination in our colleges. Irony is a frustrating but unifying thread running throughout the story. The Puritans founded Massachusetts for religious freedom, yet executed people who welcomed Quakers to the Bay colony. For those who love America, our history can be frustrating, but well worth learning from.