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The American Soul: Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders

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This timely, provocative book combines and shows the relationship between two large themes: a)the nature and importance of spiritual and religous values and b) the nature and spiritual character of American democray, with all its flaws. I was struck to find this book and the manner in which Needleman developed his themes. In broad outline, Needleman's preocupations are my own. Without agreeing with everything he said, I came away from his book with my own ideas clarified and strengthened -- and a bit envious of Needleman's eloquence and ability to put his ideas into print.

Needleman draws a double picture of American freedom and its use. One picture is that freedom means everyone does simply as he or she pleases. This is, for Needleman, an America which has been criticized by many for its materialism, its emphasis on growth, its sole focus on the profit motive, its greed, racism, and, sometimes, bellicosity.

The other America is a spiritual American whose ideas of freedom and democracy was founded upon religous and metaphysical ideas of the nature of man, human commonality, the uniqueness of each person, and the search inward of each person for what is valuable and important. The ideal of democracy on this view is not simple pursuit of material wealth but rather a turning inward so that each person may pursue life and truth in his or her own way.

And what is the relationship between these two concepts of America? How do we help transform the one into the other?
Needleman's answer is in part a study of the wisdom literature common to all religions and great philosophy of life. (Needleman evidences a great deal of impatience with standard church or synagogue-going. He argues that he himself has found such conventional forms of religion sterile and routine.) He finds such wisdom, in various of its phases, in the writings of the American founders.

Thus the larger part of the book is a discussion and creative discussion of the American founders and a reading of certain of American texts. Thus Needleman gives us a paragraph-by-paragraph discussion of Washington's Farewell Address, The Tenth Federalist Paper, Lincoln's Second Inauguaral Address, an Oration of Frederick Douglass, and Iroquois Indian creation myth, and Walt Whitman's late essay, Democratic Vistas. He tries to show how these texts show an America of spiritual values rather than money-making. His aim is, avowedly, to remythologize America and its past.

In a broad sense his project is carried through well. Some of his readings of the texts, particularly of Washington's Farewell Address and of the Iroquois myth, seem to me forced. Needleman would have done better to let Washington speak for himself rather than create a Washington with, perhaps, Needleman's own spiritual preocupations. The readings of Whitman, Douglass, and Lincoln work much better, even on Needleman's own terms.

In trying to get people to think about America -- and to reassess its values in spiritual terms --Needleman has critical things to say about America's treatment of the Indians and about the long legacy of slavery. These themes are valuable and important and Needleman is right to dwell upon them. I have some question about whether the treatment of the Indians is inself free from a degree of modern stereotyping. Be that as it may, Needleman's point is that we may see America with its flaws and crimes and love it and try to recognize and bring about the ideal in the sometimes shabby nature of the real.

There is a great deal of erudition in this book, both on spiritual texts and on American history. In addition to his treatment of certain standard figures in American history, Needleman has a fascinating discussion of the Ephrata community in Pennsylvania and its founder Conrad Bissel. This Protestant spiritual community flourished briefly during the period just before the Revolutionary War.

Walt Whitman has the last word in this book, as he properly should, with his vision of America and of the American person.
There is a great deal of interest, as best as I can tell, in American history, as evidenced by the many new books on the Founders and the unending interest in Lincoln and the Civil War, and in spirituality, which I myself have found in a study of Buddhism. This book combines these two broad themes in an attempt to help the reader rething and reunderstand America. It is a worthy goal and the book carries it out well.

No matter how much I dislike the oversimplifications of broad, emotionally loaded categories, I have always had to admit that I fall into two common ones. The first is "spiritual." The second is "patriot." How odd, at first glance! Aren't they rather contradictory? Am I a redneck if I put (as I have done since September 11th) an American flag on my car? It's puzzled me, as well as others.

Needleman's American Soul clarifies (I almost said "dispels," but it doesn't really make the mystery go "away," it deepens and enriches it) the mystery for me: without being in any way blind to human shortcomings, he reminds us of the spiritual ideals that this country was founded on and which can still be effective agents in life if we seek and create the America inside our souls. Our founders, like Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin were not naïve idealists who ignored the abundant greed, folly and hatred that existed then, exists now, and has always existed. The external form they created in the Constitution recognized these and created a system that could keep them in check, while promoting a unique societal climate that allowed for the spiritual growth (they called it "Reason," but meant far more than contemporary logic chopping) in both individuals and the community. Exploring the details of this is fascinating! For instance:

"... Scholarly controversies aside, the fact is that many of the ideals that Americans now consider definitive of our nation were introduced and developed by these mystical communities, and the original and deeper meaning of these ideals may be astonishingly different than what we now understand of them. For example, the ideas of human equality and independence in these communities are rooted in the notion that God, or "the inner light,? exists within every human being, and that the aim of life revolves around the endeavor and the necessity for every man or woman to make conscious contact with this inner divine force. This interior divinity?in William Penn?s language, ?the inner Christ"?is the source of true happiness, intelligence and moral capacity, and is meant to be the guide and ultimate authority in the conduct and assessment of our lives and obligations."

"Seen from this perspective, no human being can have ultimate authority over another, not because the individual has the right to satisfy the desires of the body or the ego; not because every individual has the right to plot the scheme of his or her own actions with respect to the social, economic or sexual aspects of life; not because every individual has the right to say whatever he wants to say. No, a human being is his own authority only because he has within him the inner Christ, the inner divinity."

These kind of thoughtful and stimulating insights abound in American Soul. This is one of Needleman's most profound books, and I recommend it enthusiastically!

Going to school at San Francisco State University, I am often confronted with cynical views of America. After going through four years at one of the most "liberal" schools in the country I could say that I to was very discouraged with my country and at times disgraced by the fact that I was a citizen of a nation riddled with such hypocracy.

With Needleman's book "The American Soul" I received great hope for myself and my country. While acknowledging the crimes of America, Needleman shows that the roots of this country are based on the freedom of the individual to pursue their own growth of "character" in light of bettering the whole of America. The flaws we now see in our country are simply a drifting from this ideal and a reflection of the lost individuals which compose our vast nation. It is not a single corrupt politition nor some unjust law which taint this great country, but a compilation of individual citizens who have all, in some way, lost sight of their role and purpose in supporting the whole of our nation.

"The American Soul" is a philosophical guide book on how to be a better American citizen which transends the dualities of liberalism and conservativism. It is a light of hope in our often depressing world.

After reading a book of such depth and conviction, one may wonder if the man speeking of such high ideas actually has the ability to live in such a manner himself. For that I am truely fortunate to have had Jacob Needleman as a professor at San Francisco State and can verify that he is a man of more integrity, joy and dedication than any I have met. Anyone who has the chance to meet this amazing human being will see that for themselves.

Jacob Needleman's book The American Soul is a masterful explanation of a deeper America, an America that has been lost in the hype and deceit of corporate greed, a media managed for misinformation and consensus and the professional wrestling that too often passes for religion in this country. Needleman writes with an elegant depth of Soul that is his subject and so he writes as a true and an especially wise American indeed. His discussion of the heart moving and inspired Iroquois solution to pettiness, greed and violence is itself worth many times the price of the book. If by some stroke of magical good fortune we could get Dr. Phil and others to stay home for a week so we could have greater access to a voice like Needleman's, America might make move toward remembering who she really is and in doing so become once again a beacon for those who seek the freedom to pursue a life of true depth, meaning and happiness, a life that lies beyond the surface freedom to stock up regularly on consumer goods. By all means, buy this book for yourself and for anyone you truly care about. The American Soul allows us to "remember" something essential and profound within ourselves, something that is the very Heart of America-something that we need to pledge allegiance to once again. This book offers profound perspective on what fitness for conscious citizenship is all about.

This book captures what our founders had in their minds and hearts when they envisioned what America could be. While we have strayed substantially from the original ideals, and lost sight of the original "American Dream," reading Needleman's words reminds us of what possibilities we are sitting on. We still have the potential to become as great, as free and as inspiring - to ourselves and all the world. All we need to do is get ourselves back on track. This book offers reminds us of our roots and instills visions of new possibilities. This is the kind of American I want to be!

The American Soul: Rediscovering The Wisdom Of The Founders is an impressive compendium of timeless truths deeply embedded withing the founding vision of the United States of America. Here presented are the key ideals underlying democracy, individual liberty, freedom of conscience, and a human wisdom freed from religious dogmas and philosophical imperialisms which have proved essential to the success of the uniquely American perspectives on government, community, and the worth of the individual citizen. Read by the author Jacob Needleman, and additional enhanced with the narrations of Gabriello de Cuir, Stefan Rudnicki, M.E. Willis, and William Windom, The American Soul is whole heartedly recommended to students of American History, Political Science, and Philosophy. (Running Time: 3 hours).

For several years now, when the topic of my favorite book comes up, I say without hesitation, "The American Soul" by Jacob Needleman. Its insights are nothing short of brilliant; his language so sublime I can't help but reread passages for the sheer poetry with which a philosopher in his prime can convey a profound insight.

If only our presidents, senators, and congressmen had this book at their bedsides. We might actually become the America we once imagined ourselves to be.

"You don't know what you have here," A British lover of America tells a shaggy, typically left-leaning group of circa-1974 Bay-area students at the start of this book. "You simply don't know what you have."

Indeed we don't, as Needleman illustrates by the end of this fine book, and it has nothing to do with "patriotism" as often perceived. At this spiritually fraught moment in our nation, this book is a tonic for doubters, and a useful corrective for the smug. While not a difficult read - a high school sophomore would profit from it - this work compels your attention and deserves to be savored one chapter at a time.

Needleman offers us a sober-minded meditation on the spiritual underpinnings of America; the soaring, and deftly revealed, beliefs of the founders (Jefferson, Madison, Washington, Franklin); a fine chapter on Lincoln; bracing chapters on America's two great original sins: the genocide of the Native Americans, with the legend of Hiawatha as a framing device; and the crimes of slavery and racism, with Frederick Douglass brought to compelling life. Tying it all together at the fitting end is Walt Whitman as a bard of a "community of conscience."

With a close, careful reading, a deeper, resonant pattern emerges.

If one is thirsty for inspiration after reading the toxic, persuasive non-fiction books on the current administration and its works (the latest, the outstanding Tragic Legacy by Gary Greenwald), Needleman's book refreshes as an inspiring - and unstinting - reminder of all there is to love in this country.

The nation's greatness, Needleman posits, lies not in its material success, but in the universalist spiritual underpinnings of the "pursuit of happiness," which Needleman persuasively argues is the freedom to discover, in our own ways, the still, small voice in each of us, or, as Lincoln would say, the better angels of our nature. IF European secularism offers us freedom FROM religion, the American secular tradition offers us freedom OF religion, or the recognition that we are each free to explore, or not explore, the divine mysteries in our own, communal and individual ways.

He does not shirk from crimes against Native Americans and African Americans, but goes beyond to a deeper look at their own spiritual traditions and roots, which have blended into the warp and woof of American life. (He does not explore Mormonism, but has a fascinating chapter on the pre-Revolutionary experimental community of Ephrata, Pa.)

This book actually revived my long-shattered belief in American exceptionalism. That exceptionalism is not the brutish sort that much of the world perceives, but a special, carefully thought vision that comes comes from spiritual and philosophical roots in the Enlightenment. It is not simple-minded, or arrogant, or materialistic, or the heedless and even reckless notion of "freedom" that has cost us so dearly.

Needleman concludes with an inviting, modest bibliography for further reading. I read this not as a bibliography but as an invitation, a call to action through service in a humble, open spirit to our communities and our world. We do not need to be mere consumers; we have more power than we know as citizens. We indeed do not know what we have here - we have plenty. As Needleman insists, we ignore that at our peril. This is one of the best books I have read on what it means to be, and why it is special, to be lucky enough to be American.

Yes, the book can get too dramatic and personal at times and can occasionally rankle. In the context of the overall message, though, these are cavils.

I can't help but think of the neglected final lines of the second verse of America, the Beautiful, one that people never sing: "Confirm thy soul in self control; thy liberty in law."

Ever wanted to talk to Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Frederick Douglass about the passion they brought to our young republic? In this exceptional offering of letters and comments, Jacob Needleman takes the reader on a tour that could very surely guide our nation back to health. The path is hidden in plain site and the words resonate long after the read.

I have recently read The American Soul. It was not an easy read for me to be honest. However, it was a very interesting read. Mr. Needleman has artfully presented the idea of America and the wisdom of founding fathers with a different interpretation. The book was also very informative for me since I do not know much about American history.

The author has a unique writing style of history, and interpretation with reflections from his own life experience. He wrote about his childhood and teenager experiences of learning history at school with visits to historical places and museums, and how uninteresting those things were for him back then. Much later, he would make sense of them. Interestingly, that was my experience with history at school, too: I was not interested in at all.

Mr. Needleman is no doubt in love with America, more accurately, with the idea of America. However, he is not blind to miss the shortcomings, and the dark parts of American history. To him, more than anything else, America meant hope that good would prevail over evil although both existed. America is the hope that everyone would be judged with internal qualifications, something that was one's own self, and not by external factors such as race, wealth, or class.

Most of the book has been devoted to re-mythologize founding fathers in an attempt to explain why/how those people --despite being human beings like us-- became larger than life, and created the American nation, and shaped the modern world. He puts the decisions and actions of those great people into perspective by showing how those decisions were reached, and how their actions were shaped with subtle details that had influence on them.

The author was quite honest to talk about dark parts of American history. Although the book spent vast majority of its pages for the great promises and ideas of America, it also highlighted the contradiction that came from the crime against Native Americans and the history of slavery.

I think The American Soul is a great book to understand the wisdom of founding fathers, and America as an idea.