In this, the first comprehensive historical analysis of the debate over the desecration of the American flag, Robert Justin Goldstein takes us from the 1989 flagburning incident that ignited an emotionally charged controversy across the nation back to the very origins of the flag as a symbol of America.

It may surprise some present-day flag-protectionists to learn that the flag did not become an object of veneration until the end of the Civil War, when groups of ultra-patriotic citizens and veterans lobbied hard to give it unique status as a symbol of the nation.