Review: This Is Important
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 4, 2012
Having seen an excerpt from this in the Wall Street Journal, I wanted to read this book.  It was well done and informative.In 1776, America had the highest per capita income in the world, with the lowest taxes, and Britain wanted to confiscate our wealth, thus was born the revolution.  We already were a melting pot, and had social mobility unlike that in any other nation.  We also had a thriving middle class.Some of Thomas Fleming's facts are fascinating and informative (slavery was nonexistant in the North by 1800, having been ended, and Virginia had started down the path to phase out slavery, only to be spooked by the slave rebellions in Haiti in 1790).  Some are just fun (George Washington's famous wooden teeth were most likely hippopotamus teeth).  And the frontier was not the home of the rebellion; it was born in the cities, and carried by those who had the most to lose: wealthy landholders, tavern keepers, merchants.I am glad I purchased this book; 3 of my sons have also read it already.  Although short, it does remind us from whence we came, and that is important.