My review of "A Patriot's History of the United States"

JEFFHEAD.COM ^ | 11 June 2005 | Jeff Head

[Jeff Head]

Jeff Head's Review of "A Patriot's History of the United States"

Larry Schweikart (Freeper LS) and Michael Allen have written a history of the United States that is tremendously broad in scope, and monumental in its approach in our modern times. It begins with Christopher Columbus and proceeds through to current events, including 9-11 and its aftermath, the War on Terror and the fights in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the re-election of George W. Bush.. The work covers over 510 years of history in 825 pages. There are over 70 pages of footnotes at the end of the book, detailing critical historical conditions and facts from each of the twenty-two chapters.

The best introduction to a review of this work that I could give regarding its approach the authors took, is from the mouths of the authors themselves in their own introduction:

"Is America's past a tale of racism, sexism, and bigotry? Is it the story of the conquest and rape of a continent? Is U.S. history the story of white slave owners who perverted the electoral process for their own interests? Did America start with Columbus's killing all the Indians, leap to Jim Crow laws and Rockefeller crushing the workers , then finally save itself with Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal? The answers, of course, are no, no, no, and NO.

"One might never know this, however, by looking at almost any mainstream U.S. history textbook. Having taught American history in one form or another for close to sixty years between us, we are aware that, unfortunately, many students are berated with tales of the Founders as self-interested politicians and slave-holders, of the icons of American industry as robber-barons, oppressors, and of every American foreign policy initiative as imperialistic and insensitive. At least Howard Zinn's, A People's History of the United States, honestly represents its Marxist biases in the title!

"What is most amazing and refreshing is that the past usually speaks for itself. The evidence is their for telling the great story of the American past honestly-with flaws, absolutely; with shortcomings, most definitely. But we think that an honest evaluation of the history of the United States must begin and end with the recognition that, compared to any other nation, America's past is a bright and shining light. America was, and is, the city on a hill, the fountain of hope, the beacon of liberty. We utterly reject "My country right or wrong"- what scholar wouldn't? But in the last thirty years, academics have taken an equally destructive approach, "My country always wrong!" We reject that too.

"Instead, we remain convinced that if the story of America's past is told fairly, the results cannot be anything but a deepened patriotism, a sense of awe at the obstacles overcome, the passion invested, the blood and tears spilled, and the nation that was built."

The authors then proceed to do just that, to show that despite the errors, mistakes, and shortcomings along the way, the telling of American history ends up being a story of unequaled faith, character, virtue, and moral clarity. They demonstrate how through the faith and goodness of most of the principle characters involved, as well as the majority of the settlers, colonists, and then citizens, a liberty was allowed to develop that was based on moral constraint and founded in Christian heritage. That liberty then allowed America to become the envy of the world. Not due to arrogance, selfishness or shortsightedness, though there was some of that at times, but due to the intrinsic foundational moral principles that those people based their lives upon which produced and then maintained that freedom and that prosperity.

It is a marvelous work that I cannot recommend highly enough. Every student of American history, every parent wanting their child to understand what truly has made this nation great, every home schooling parent should place this book in their library and make it readily available to their children. Better yet, they should sit down and read it together with them.

Now, you may find that because of the scope of the work that there are some particular details which you are personally aware of in history that do not get the attention you would prefer. I found this so with the phenomenal story of George Rogers Clark, older brother to the great explorer, William Clark of the famed Lewis and Clark expedition. George Rogers Clark, with a small band of less than 200 soldiers, during the Revolutionary War defeated and brought under American control, the entirety of the Northwest Territory at the time. A land mass that doubled the size of the United States. He did it through stratagem and through miraculous means that are a marvel to this day...and he did it without losing a man in combat. Because of his exploits, entire Indian nations at the time, who otherwise could have posed significant issue to the western expansion of America, and to the defeat of the British in the west, sued for peace with this great man, his very small band of soldiers, and the fledgling nation they represented. That his story was not covered was a disappointment to me because I had anticipated it. But, on the other hand, it gave me the opportunity to teach my youngest son about that particular aspect of the revolutionary war as we read the magnificent coverage of other more notable aspects of the revolution, and, which I might add, were in fact more germane to the ultimate victory over the British.

In a work of this scope, to pay that much attention to every detail would result in a work of ten or twelve volumes, which was not the author's aim. Through not becoming distracted, they accomplish their aim, as stated in the introduction, marvelously throughout the book, paying great heed to the pivotal points in history and the underlying political, cultural, and moral issues all along the way that contributed to them.

For remaining true to this, and remaining true to the actual conditions and intent of those of whom they write, the authors deserve our most sincere congratulations and their own scholarly notoriety. For having the courage and clarity to show how those events and those people used their faith, their determination, and their integrity and commitment to set the foundation for, craft, build, and then maintain and defend American liberty (including a true rendition of things like the Vietnam War and why it turned out the way it did) and its accompanying life style and prosperity, the authors deserve our undying respect and gratitude.

[martian_22]

Bttt!

[LS]

As always, I'll "ping" your Amazon review as "helpful" whenever I'm there:)

Leftist reviews of anything are always "not helpful."

How's it coming with the editor?

Scott hasn't placed "SD" yet, but swears that he always finds a publisher, even if it takes time.

[LS]

Thank you, thank you. Available soon in audio, too, from Blackstone. Working on the details.

[lodwick]

Ordered - thanks for bringing this one to my attention.

[Jeff Head]

You are very welcome. If you cherish foundational American faith, ideals and moral values, which are the basis for our liberty, you will enjoy this book and its documentation of the history that reveals and punctuates it.

[rlmorel]

And anothor AudioBook bump! I am really looking forward to reading this.

[Dumb_Ox]

I don't think we have the same conception of what sinful pride is.

Frankly, I don't care much for the American government itself, whatever party is in charge, which might be another major reason why such expressions of "We're #1 in the eyes of everybody who doesn't hate us" provoke irritated verbiage from me. My loyalty to the physical land of my birth and the people I actually know is prior in my mind, then less local areas gradually increasing to the abstract nation and then the very very general Globe. Nationalism strikes me as a half-way house between globalism and localism. I think of myself as a Coloradoan before I think of myself as an American, which is very strange because I have no connections to nostalgic Southern neo-confederates.

[LS]

Reading? Or listenig??

[wardaddy]

So, do I agree with every represetation of the civil was in PHUS...no,

That is sort my feeling.....ambivalent to that section admittedly.

The rest of the book is great.

Personal bias and identity almost always clouds perspective. It's just human nature.

[Dumb_Ox]

I don't think that we would have very much liked some of our ancestors, in some ways - slavery is an example - but it has to be said that in the big picture the things we wouldn't like about them were things that were in fact commonplace to previous history and geography. There was slavery just about everywhere, during most of history. And arbibrary government.

Slavery was actually mostly eliminated in Western Christendom between 1000 AD and the Renaissance. In this sentence are you saying our current system of government is arbitrary? That's my take on it, especially when it comes to the friggin' Supreme Court. Most everything governmental has been nationalized or internationalized, and I think certain conservatives' praises for the nation simply reinforce that problem.(Hey, speaking of which, Winthrop wasn't speaking of America but just his colony, right? So it seems his city upon a hill is even more wrenched out of context.)

Also, in an odd similarity with some leftists, I don't think much of assimilation. I still think of myself as Irish some 100 years after my last ancestor arrived in this land, and what isn't Irish in my ancestry is otherwise Celtic. The erasure of ethnicity in my mind is a bug and not a feature of American life. I don't like homogenization in general, but American assimilation in particular treats the nation's borders as one big River Lethe--all who pass through to stay must forget the past. One can even twist the phrase "Novus Ordo Seclorum" to justify such amnesia. Yeah, not everything should be remembered, but there is plenty that shouldn't be forgotten.

The issue is politics. Like most on FR, I am a paleoWhig. I believe in the Constitution as written and amended, both for tradition and because it institutes a highly pragmatic system, validated by history. I respect the fact that I can't have my own way on everything, and am grateful for a system which provides good enough government.

I once thought of myself as a whig, but I think I might be a Tory poseur, now. :) Anyway, I like the constitution well enough, but I think it has become simply a paper obstacle to either the General Will or the Will of the National Ruler, in the service of which legal arguments are manufactured. There's not much reasoning going on. The constitution has regrettably become an Ink-Blot test where you see what you want to see--it's even explicitly stated in Supreme Court jurisprudence now. In my eyes, it is lamentably no longer the charter for the government but simply a challenge for creative lawyers to overcome for fun and profit.

Also, the "good enough government" of compromise tends towards the lowest common denominator, and the cultural onslaught of the left has tended to make that common denominator lower and lower. Heck, even conservatives do so now: we're not a "Protestant Christian Nation" as the nativists insisted, but instead a "Judeo-Christian nation," to include the Jews and the Catholics. Right now some Muslims are even trying to get their name into that hyphenated adjective!

Frankly, I'm having a hard time distinguishing the current American system of government from a well-organized band of robbers, from the President down to Joe "Regular Voter" Citizen. Of course, the Soviet Union was a badly organized band of robbers, which might be even worse, but hopefully that's behind us now. Here's a passage from Augustine that presently haunts me:

"Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale? What are criminal gangs but petty kingdoms? A gang is a group of men under the command of a leader, bound by a compact of association, in which the plunder is divided according to an agreed convention.

If this villainy wins so many recruits from the ranks of the demoralized that it aquires territory, establishes a base, captures cities and subdues peoples, it then openly arrogates to itself the title of kingdom, which is conferred on it by the eyes of the world, not by the renouncement of aggression but by the attainment of impunity."
-Augustine, City of God Book IV Chapter 4

So much government, no matter the party, is simply divvying up plunder among one's associates, without regard to questions of truth or genuine human goods except insofar as they hinder the efficiency of any plunder's flow to one's allies. I'm in a very-pessimistic-about-politics mood this week, so hopefully this feeling will pass. I would appreciate it if somebody here can help disabuse me of this feeling. I've promised myself not to give up on the American political system until I attend a county party caucus, for fear I'm simply believing the sensationalistic prophets of doom in the media and pundit classes.

Thanks to you both for writing, I haven't had a discussion like this on FR in some time.

[rlmorel]

Listening, but if I cannot wait for it, I may buy it. I live in a small ranch, and buying books is problematic. I already have so many books my tolerant wife looks at me askance whenever I walk in with one, and asks me when I am going to get rid of some of my old ones.

I HATE having to choose which books to discard...:( They are all like old friends.

[LS]

Where is your ranch? I grew up on a cattle ranch near Higley, AZ. My dad, despite a deformed foot, was an excellent rodeo roper in teams with my uncle.

[Jeff Head]

Well, irrespective of how you or I feel about it...and I must add, that the fact that we are both discussing those feelings on an open, public forum such as this without fear of retribution puts us ahead of the large majority of people who have lived on this planet...still, people from all opver the earth long to live on these shores so they can experience the freedoms we have in this land and have the opportunity to improve themselves.

Irrespective of the losses we have experienced in our nation away from what the founders invisioned and put in place, we are still by and large very free and have the opportunity to improve ourselves according to the dictates of our own hearts and the fruits of our own labors.

We have that liberty and freedom, IMHO, because there is a large existance of fundamental morality in this land still, despite what goes on in Washington DC, or Hollywood,. or Denver Colorado, or any other other capital...and God in Heaven still smiles on that (and I believe He will as long as it remains in place). Second to that, and paramount in its defense, is that we are free because over eioghty million American citizens remained armed with their own personal weapons.

In order to gain back the ground lost, people must become active in their own spheres of influence. That's one reason such a book as this, which speaks to these very issues, is a good thing. It will be a vehicle and a tool to help oin that endeavor...to become involved and help influence and educate.

Just my opinion.

[Jeff Head]

Yes they do...and in that regard this book is a good thing and hopefully will be used by a lot of people (home schoolers, educators, parents, grand parents, friends, relatives and neighbors) to help balance the perspective.

[cyn]

Thanks, Jeff. Stay well.

[rlmorel]

Heh, oh no, not that kind...I mean the little three bedroom living room, bathroom and kitchen ranch like the kind they built in the 50's...all with the red shag carpeting and turquoise kitchen appliances!

I do, however, look like I could handle myself on a horse, do I not...:)

[rlmorel]

Well Said!!!!!

[Jeff Head]

Thanks...way too many typos, but those words still represent the sentmients of my heart.

[jla]

bttt

[jla]

I grew up on a cattle ranch near Higley, AZ.

You must love wintertime in Ohio.