America is five hundred years old; the United States is less than half that age. The term America was coined in 1507 to refer to a continent and a dream of a new world. People in the United States, especially government leaders, have a serious problem of regularly speaking as if their country were America. Author Gabriel Moran reflects on the use of the word America in the United States from its beginning to the present. He cites numerous examples to show the importance of distinguishing between the United States and America. The result is a different way of perceiving and understanding the history of the United States. This book is especially relevant to the current political division within the United States and some of the missteps in its foreign policy. The failure to consistently distinguish between the nation of the United States and the continent and dream America underlies nearly every political, cultural and economic problem that the country faces.

Gabriel Moran is professor emeritus of educational philosophy at New York University. He has published more than two dozen books during a span of fifty years. His recent works include Living Nonviolently: language for Resisting Violence (2011) and Uniquely Human: The Basis of Human Rights (2013). Moran's writing is especially focused on how language shapes our thinking.