Customer Reviews

The American Revelation: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country from the Puritans to the Cold War

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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

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 significant in the creation and implementation of a major ideal of the American nation. They are in order:

*) City On a Hill - John Winthrop, 1630. John Winthrop was the Governor of the Massachusetts colony established by the Puritans and the ideal was that of establishing a place where people could freely practice the religion of their choice.

*) Common Sense - Thomas Paine, 1776. More than anyone else, Paine described the reasons for the American Colonies rebellion against King George. Widely circulated, his "Common Sense" was the chief item of propaganda in favor of independence.

*) E Pluribus Unum - Pierre Eugene Du Simitiere, 1776. Historically obscure, Du Simitiere was a Swiss artist that was hired to create the Great Seal of the United States.

*) Self-reliance - Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841. A talented writer, Emerson espoused the American pioneer spirit of doing things yourself, blazing new trails into whatever "wilderness" you encounter.

*) Manifest destiny - John L. O'Sullivan, 1845. O'Sullivan was the person who coined the phrase "manifest destiny" to describe the role of the United States in the world.

*) Progress and poverty - Henry George, 1879. George was one of the early commentators on the problems of poor people living in a wealthy state. He argued that labor was the key resource, "labor is the employer of capital."

*) The Sphere of action - Jane Addams, 1902. Addams was one of the founders of Hull-House in Chicago. It started as a place where "ragamuffin" children could attend kindergarten classes and grew into a beacon for neighborhood social work. Addams then became a pioneer in the ideals of how the better off could assist the poor.

*) The Melting-Pot - Israel Zangwill, 1908. Zangwill described the United States as "the greatest idealistic experiment in government." He wrote extensively on how so many different people of so many different backgrounds were able to come together to construct a nation.

*) The Negro in our history - Carter G. Woodson, 1922. Woodson was a scholar whose focus was on capturing and describing the history of black people in America.

*) The Marshall plan - George C. Marshall, 1947. Marshall was the chief architect of the massive program whereby American aid was sent to Europe after the end of World War II. By giving so freely of its' treasure, the United States remained a world power and stopped the advance of communism in Europe. It is no exaggeration to say that it was the most significant act in the American victory over communism in the cold war.

These short biographical bits describe principal American ideals by describing the lives of people who are for the most part not part of the mainstream of historical study. They are well written and worthy of study. It is a valuable lesson that many people who made major contributions, but are rarely mentioned in the history books also built this country.

The 10 ideas that shaped America is quite an important 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 can 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 selected essays from various sources 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 small 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 first place. I believe his second chapter should have been on the Declaration of Independence.

Also it would have helped to have some thread enlightening us as to how the preceding chapter foreshadowed the next. After all, enlightenment ( that of showing the reader what great ideas led Americans to today) was the goal of Mr. Baldwin's work.

Still, the book did lead me to seek out some other sources and that is valuable in and of itself.

So, I give it three stars. An interesting read, but not what it could have been.

The premise of these ten biographical essays is to concentrate on individuals who brought "fundamental Americanism", values at a time in which our leaders prefer polarizing the people to consolidate power via the money mechanism needed for reelections. Readers may disagree on the choices (no presidents), which is part of the fun of this tome. For instance, this reviewer expected Lincoln as the influence of changing from state-centric to national-conscience, but instead he failed to make the cut and some that were selected I never heard of before. Historical buffs will enjoy reading about values of this country from the seventeenth century: John Winthrop; eighteenth century: Thomas Paine and Pierre Eugene Du Simitiere; nineteenth century: Ralph Waldo Emerson, John L. O'Sullivan, and Henry George; twentieth century: Jane Addams, Israel Zangwill, Carter G. Woodson, and George C. Marshall. Written somewhat like the required reading of an American History 101 course, Neil Baldwin presents a fascinating concept supported by his chosen ones who he argues lived the American ideal of individual freedom and rights.

Harriet Klausner

This book reminds me of the pretentious, mind-numbing courses on intellectual history I suffered through in college. Clearly, it was prepared with a great deal of thought and scholarship, but the sum is not a fraction of its parts.

While I'll give the author credit for coming up with an interesting premise and giving credit to some lesser-known thinkers/doers, I can't call this book an enjoyable or illuminating read. It's so choppy and written so strangely that long sections are incomprehensible. Most inexcusable is the author's decision to put quote marks around every possible phrase, as if to prove he read all the original texts and related texts he references. There are literally scores of examples in which he puts quotes around one or two words -- and not important words, either -- which destroy the flow of the book. Furthermore, because he's doing short sketches that include a person's biography and historical context, he scants attention to the thing he purported to write about: their intellectual contribution to America.