Bringing together drawings and paintings by illustrator N.C. Wyeth and his grandson James Wyeth, One Nation challenges definitions of both "patriot" and "pirate." Tom Brokaw contributes an essay on his nation's changing views of patriotism from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present.From approximately 1912 to 1945, when the renowned illustrator N.C. Wyeth was most active, his country was fighting under the American flag, the symbol of freedom. Patriotism was every citizen's duty, and N.C. Wyeth's work epitomized all that was American; the images he created for U.S. government posters and books such as Poems of American Patriotism became the symbols of patriotism for an era. By the time James Wyeth came of age, the country was once again at war, but to some, "patriotism" no longer meant marching off to battle but rather marching in protest.The contrast between these two eras comes alive in the vibrant art of two generations of Wyeths, augmented by provocative essays on the subject of Lauren Smith, David Michaelis, and Tom Brokaw.
