Earlier this month, I sat at The New School in New York listening to Walter Isaacson talk about how we tell stories about America. He was speaking at the launch of the Center for the American Experience, on whose advisory board I serve. The conversation eventually turned to Isaacson’s many books and which ones had sold well. His answer left me thinking about how much of American achievement we overlook. America’s 250th anniversary gives us a good reason to look for these stories and share them.

Isaacson has written about Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, among many others. He noted that his books about individuals have generally sold better than those about people working together. The Innovators, his fascinating, layered account of the people who created the computer and the Internet, was one example. Readers, he suggested, prefer stories of the “great man” to those of the group.