In his 1998 book “The American Century,” Harold Evans wrote about the nation’s “inner light of freedom.” Since then, he says, the pursuit of freedom has become reckless. Democracy has become transactional. An isolated America has plunged into a “permanent fog of war” on its own turf.

“We are reeling from the tsunami of lies and the images of outrage,” Evans, 92, writes in an email from his home in the Hamptons. “What has been inspiring to see is that Americans have cut through the mist to fight for justice and equality.”

Is America failing, or is it just changing?

“I learned America was a failure when I was 18 and they tried to talk to me about the electoral college,” says D.C. resident Allison Lane, 34. “I’ve always felt this country wasn’t made for me.”

…

A union of states, or a nation of people?

American collapse, or American transformation?

Lane talks of her new life of activism as an experiment. She might as well be talking about the country.

“I tell the team: I’m failing literally every day,” she says. “Every day I don’t know what I’m doing. That doesn’t mean I’m not smart or won’t figure it out.”