The Idea of America: How Values Shaped Our Republic and Hold the Key to Our Future
A superb account of American life through the centuries. ...Readers will come away with a remarkably comprehensive understanding of America and all of its paradoxes. --Gordon S. Wood, author of Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815The most difficult decisions in my careers in government, business, and academia have been those where two principles, each held dearly, seem to collide - for example, loyalty to a friend and fiduciary responsibility to an institution. When taken to the scale of our nation, such tensions can become monumental - as well as fascinating, instructive, and consequential. Rarely, if ever, has anything been written that examines the fundamental dilemmas faced by our nation as strkly and readably as does The Idea of America. --Norm Augustine, retire chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin and former Under Secretary of the U.S. ArmyThis book is a remarkable and invaluable civics lesson for all Americans. It views our national history through the prism of four fundamental value tensions that define our character and our culture and shows us how the idea of America emerges from our willingness to meet the challenge of balancing and reconciling these values. This is a must-read for us all. --Carol Berkin, author of a Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution and Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence