"Fictions of U.S. History offers a new definition of the term "fictions." A fiction is not merely the imaginative literature we treasure in works of novelists, dramatists, and poets. It is that. But it is much more. A fiction is a powerful, driving idea that enters the life an individual lives, the course a whole society travels, and the stories historians tell about the long stretches of the human past. In many dimensions, fictions affect every person on planet Earth.

We all live lives based on fictions.".

"This book expands that definition; then it presents illustrations that demonstrate how dominant fictions of a given time emerge and are entrenched, and how historical actors have come to accept or reject these fictions given their personal experiences. The first illustration concerns "the grandest fiction," the patriarchal system, its origins, effects, and future. The second addresses the fictions that dominated stories historians told about the Reconstruction after the American Civil War.

The third centers upon the emergence and demise of Mormon polygamy as a fiction in the nineteenth century. The fourth and last illustration considers the life of Eleanor Roosevelt, tracing her life and the fictions that empowered her living."--BOOK JACKET.