What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism

Dan Rather has received virtually every honor in broadcast journalism, including numerous Emmy Awards and the Peabody Award. He anchored CBS Evening News for twenty-four years. Rather is one of America's most decorated news journalists of all time.

Elliot Kirschner is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and filmmaker. After a career at CBS, producing for the CBS Evening News, CBS Sunday Morning, and 60 Minutes II, Kirschner joined his longtime collaborator Dan Rather as the senior producer for Dan Rather Reports. He now develops film, television, and digital projects.

“A tonic for our times . . . Rather's writing shows why he has won the admiration of a new generation. In these essays, he gives voice to the marginalized and rips off the journalistic shield of objectivity to ring the alarm bell when he witnesses actions he fears undermine the principles of American democracy. That, undoubtedly, is patriotic. And it takes courage.”
—USA Today

“[A] much-needed collection of essays from Rather on American values, from the importance of empathy, inclusion and service to the qualities that helped found the nation.”
—New York Post (Required Reading)

“One of American’s most trusted voices . . . reminds us what’s great about this country in a time of unprecedented polarization.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“What Unites Us . . . stirringly melds memoir with a meditation on American values, including patriotism, inclusion and dissent.”
—CNN.com

“Interweaving sweet personal stories with history, [Rather] makes a simple, compelling case for America . . . a clear-eyed love letter to USA. A tonic for disaffected millennials and conservative grandpas alike.”
—People (Book of the Week)

“From his vantage point as one of this country’s most revered broadcasters, Rather analyzes the current state of disconnected discourse in a series of reflective essays that go to the heart of what it means to be an American.”
—Booklist (starred review)

"What Unites Us is at times almost unbearably poignant. Yet Rather’s words provide a sort of salve—and clear thinking about how to recover from these ugly times. What Unites Us is a passionate treatise on preserving the best of America and letting go of that which makes us weaker.”
—BookPage

“If everyone could adopt the measured tone of Rather . . . you begin to feel that political chasms could be crossed . . . Rather implores you to step back into the world with compassion and gumption, global existential crises be damned.”
—Austin Chronicle

“[A]n essential read for anyone swept up in the current national conversation.”
—TimeOut.com

“A full-throated celebration of the national spirit and its potential to persevere.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Provides a pleasant alternative to the reliance on vitriol and irony in modern political discourse . . . Rather has issued a stirring call for overcoming today’s strident partisanship.”
—Publishers Weekly