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Americans love political discussion and debate. From colonial days when pamphlets and town meetings were the mechanism of discourse, to modern times when talk radio and political blogs stimulate discussion of important public issues, robust political debate is a crucial element of American life. For many, an important element of current debate centers on the historical perspective. From documents and speeches such as The Federalist Papers, George Washington's farewell address and Lincoln's second inaugural address, great respect is often given to the intellectual contributions of America's founding fathers. It is a rare day when the opinion pages of major print media or television commentators do not make reference to the written word of bygone centuries.
THE AMERICAN REVELATION: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country From the Puritans to the Cold War, by Neil Baldwin, is both a thought-provoking and thoughtful narrative of important examples of ideas that have shaped American thought, life, and our unique American identity. The ideas selected by the author pre-date the founding of the United States as a nation and traverse nearly four centuries of American life. By the author's own admission, they are not intended to be exhaustive. Rather, they are a selection, a few out of many ideas, concepts and phrases of American history and how they came to be part of the American lexicon.
Baldwin's list is neither political nor polemic. His first selection, "City on a Hill," the remarks of John Winthrop to the Massachusetts Bay Colonists in 1630, has been quoted by proponents of diverse political philosophies --- President Ronald Reagan and Governor Mario Cuomo, to name just two. Baldwin's discussion of The Marshall Plan, the American effort to rebuild a shattered European continent after World War II, is probably the finest example in American history of truly bi-partisan foreign policy in action. In each chapter Baldwin provides the reader with a brief biographical note of the author of an important contribution to American thought, the times in which the author lived, and the impact of the ideas on the American nation. In a nation that still fiercely debates the words and deeds of its founding fathers, it is important to stimulate debate about American values throughout the life of our country in order to understand what those values truly are.
It is Neil Baldwin's belief that our nation is currently suffering the consequences of a deeply divisive political debate. The pulse of 21st century America, he writes, "often sounds as if it is emanating from two separate heartbeats." Americans need to turn to core beliefs that can provide a unifying focus for our thoughts and our lives. There have been times in the life of our nation when such unifying thoughts were presented to the nation. They may have been, in the words of Thomas Paine, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry George, Jane Adams, or any of the ten sculptors of American thought whose words serve as the foundation of THE AMERICAN REVELATION. The perilous times in which we live demand an idealism that leads to a new definition of patriotism and national character. That critical goal begins with one citizen and one reader at a time.
--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman
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