“Before the war, it was said 'the United States are' - grammatically it was spoken that way and thought of as a collection of independent states. And after the war it was always 'the United States is', as we say today without being self-conscious at all. And that sums up what the war accomplished. It made us an 'is'.”

—  Shelby Foote

Interviewed in the documentary series The Civil War, 1990

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update May 7, 2022. History

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Shelby Foote 16
Novelist, historian 1916–2005

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