How does a nation redeem itself? What ideas, values, and strategies get mobilized in order for a nation to feel good about itself again? Is such a recovery possible for an entire people? America's Atonement provides one answer to these and related questions by arguing that racial pain, notably white racial pain, provides a metaphor for understanding a wide range of redemption-aimed cultural practices, ranging from the Yellow Ribbon Movement (1972-1992) to the current wave of recovery movies such as Disclosure and Forrest Gump.