The Stars and the Stripes: The American Flag as Art and as History from the Birth of the Republic to the Present;

This unprecedented book is the first to show us our national flag in all its various incarnations through two hundred years. Based largely on the authors' incomparable collection of antique American flags, the beautiful color photographs, the superb narrative and captions trace the development of the flag's design from the first rebellious stripes, conceived in Revolutionay fervor, to the standard precision of our current fifty-star flag. With 255 plates in full color.