American Revelation Ideals Country Puritans
In The American Revelation, Neil Baldwin, one of our most stimulating and provocative intellectual historians, applies his formidable energies to the story of how the American Spirit developed over four centuries, through an inspiring—and unsparing—examination of chosen ideals that have helped inform our culture through the bright personalities who set the course.
Figures both intimate and forgotten illumine this timely narrative of ordinary history that enlivens the current debate with regards to America’s proper role in a turbulent post-9/11 world. Though an idealisti may have been forgotten, that does not mean it no longer has the power to move us and shape our future.
Exuberant and lively, The American Revelation will inspire all readers, disregarding of their politics, to revisit and revalue our country’s high-minded heritage.
From Publishers WeeklyGiven the polarization of contemporary America, says historian and former National Book Foundation executive conductor Baldwin, “we need to turn to galvanizing beliefs that will provide a unifying focus….” To this end, Baldwin ably investigates 10 key precepts of what might be called “fundamental Americanism,” while at the same time highlighting iconic Americans who helped to define and articulate those precepts. Here we have biographical sketches of early Massachusetts governor John Winthrop, who offered the idea of a “city on a hill”; Thomas Paine’s Common Sense; Pierre Du Simitière’s notion of “E pluribus unum”; Emerson’s vision of self-reliance; John L. O’Sullivan’s conception of manifest fate and, of more recent vintage, the enlightened generosity embodied in the post-WWII Marshall Plan. But in whittling these down to the arbitrary number of 10, Baldwin inevitably leaves out a outstanding deal. Any collection such as this desperately needs Abraham Lincoln’s soaring poetry with regards to government “of the people, by the people, for the people,” and a nod to the Declaration of Independence and JFK’s inaugural speech, amidst other key rhetorical pillars of the American experiment.
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From BooklistOf the myriad American heroes, Baldwin boils down the list to 10 who represent the essence of the U.S and it is ideals. He begins in 1630 with John Winthrop’s traveling to the New World and founding of the Massachusetts Bay Company, which set the tone for American community and commerce. Baldwin includes Thomas Paine, author and publisher of Common Sense, the foundation for America’s free press, as well as the lesser-known Pierre Eugene Du Simitiere, who, for the duration of the American Revolution, produced the unifying slogan e pluribus unum for the fledgling nation. Among the other idealists: Ralph Waldo Emerson and his system of belief of self-reliance; John L. O’Sullivan, supporter of American elaboration as Manifest Destiny; Henry George, author of Progress and Poverty and reasonable tax advocate; Jane Addams, whose Hull House helped assimilate immigrants; Israel Zangwill, whose drama The Melting Pot trumpeted the idealisti of equivalent prospect for new Americans; Carter G. Woodson, crusader for inclusion of blacks in American history; and George Marshall, author of the 1948 plan that put American resources to work in rebuilding war-torn Europe. Vernon Ford
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Review “Neil Baldwin enriches our understanding of America, and the portion we might — in truth must — play in living it is animating ideals. He identifies ten ideals that we think of as specifically American, and traces their origination in ten compelling individuals. He endows political bloviation, rhetoric and mutual slogans with the beating heart of humane aspiration beset by doubt, challenged by circumstance, and withal renewed, by the persons in tryouts beyond the imagination of the founders.” — Sir Harold Evans, author of They Made America
“At a time when there is a lot of uninformed talk with regards to American values, it’s indispensable to reach back and comprehend what those values genuinely are. Neil Baldwin does it in this smart and thoughtful narrative by looking at ten examples, ranging from John Winthrop’s outstanding sermon invoking a city on a hill, to the Marshall Plan, which saved the chance of free-market democracy in Europe.”—Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
American Revelation Ideals Country Puritans Photo
American Revelation Ideals Country Puritans Photo
American Revelation Ideals Country Puritans Photo
American Revelation Ideals Country Puritans Picture
Most helpful client reviews
17 of 18 persons found the following review helpful.
 A Thought-Provoking Narrative
By Bookreporter.com
Americans love political discussion and debate. From colonial days when pamphlets and town meetings were the mechanism of discourse, to innovative times when talk radio and political blogs stimulate discussion of important public issues, robust political debate is a essential factor of American life. For many, an necessary factor 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 times 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.
8 of 9 persons found the following review helpful.
 Ideals devised by some minor historical figures
By Charles Ashbacher
This book is a collection of ten short biographies of people who had an enormous influence in the growth and development of the United States. Each person was substantial in the creation and implementation of a major idealisti of the American nation. They are in order:
5 of 6 persons found the following review helpful.
 Not a bad read
By Warner Todd Huston
The 10 ideas that shaped America is rather an necessary topic of conversation, really. Why DID we get this way, exactly? How did we come about? Why do we have the dichotomy of a nation founded by religions, but a government free of them? Why did we shun socialism when Europe embraced it? Unfortunately, after reading this book I did not feel that any questions were answered.
Neal Baldwin is easy to read, that much may surely be said. But each chapter was so divorced from the other as to leave the reader imagining that he were reading a simple volume of chosen essays from respective roots with no overriding theme. To be fair, Mr. Baldwin does warn that he didn’t intend any overarching theme, but that sort of makes the book a bit hollow.
And, my biggest problem with this little tome is that he ignored the Founder’s ideas of representative democracy leaving it out of the mix. These ideas were the bedrock of our nation without which we would not have had an America in the introductory place. I believe his second chapter will have to have been on the Declaration of Independence.
Also it would have helped to have a heap of thread enlightening us as to how the preceding chapter foreshadowed the next. After all, enlightenment ( that of showing the reader what outstanding ideas led Americans to today) was the goal of Mr. Baldwin’s work.
Still, the book did lead me to seek out galore other roots and that is valuable in and of itself.
So, I give it three stars. An interesting read, but not what it could have been.
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