Customer Reviews

The Five Thousand Year Leap: Twenty-Eight Great Ideas That Are Changing the World

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This book is the most detailed collection I've ever seen discussing the constitution and the men who wrote it. I'm planning on making it one of my children's schoolbooks! If you are interested in finding out more about your country and why it was founded, you need to read this book. You'll look back on it often for reference, and you'll have a hard time not loaning it out to every person you know.

A great compilation of the inspired ideas that are shaping our nation; a must read for all patriots. In this post-September-11 world, this book reminds us of the need to return to the religious and moral foundation upon which our republic rests.

Although the book's thesis is based on Judeo-Christian principles, I had no problem (nor did our nation's founders) in extending its premises to all humanity and all humane belief systems. I especially liked the summary of Ben Franklin's fundamentals of all sound religion on p. 77.

For those of you who deny the need for a religious and moral component to our society, I can only side with an intellect greater than mine. Let us remember George Washington's warning from his farewell address excerpted on p. 76 of the book: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indespensable supports...And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion...Reason and experience forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle."

Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, anyone who believes in an ordered universe will find much to ponder in this book.

It just amazes me how well established the revisionists have become in America, and how so many of us can't see through the smoke screen. When we can read direct quotes from our Founding Forfathers why do we still continue to disbelieve? This isn't the first book I've read of this kind and this one continues to make my convictions about this country even stronger. The information contained in it should be in every household in America and every school house in every county, seat, parish in every state and be manditory study for every politician, government official, "leader" and political figure of every kind.

This book succinctly outlines what the founding fathers envisioned in creating "these United States" - where the individual holds the power, the states are subject to the people and the federal government is subject to the states and the people. Somewhat different than what is perceived today - especially by those in Washington. Although times change, principles do not - the law of gravity is perpetual as are certain "unalienable rights. "The Five Thousand Year Leap" clarifies these ideas in an easy-to-read format.

Willard Cleon Skousen (1913--2006) was a prolific writer, a lawyer, a college professor (Brigham Young University), and police chief, a rabid John Birch Society anti-Communist, and much more. This highly accessible but practically forgotten volume has gotten much press recently by activists in the newly-revived Republican activist, so-called `Tea Party" movement. Being somewhat confused as to what this group would like to see happen in the United States (besides simply replacing the reigning regime in Washington), I thought reading some of their tracts might give me a clue.

For all the extremism of his political views, this books comes across as a pleasantly optimistic and healthy-spirited defense of the American Constitution and the political way of life that this Constitution has fostered. Skousen considers the American Constitution a stunning miracle, and the fact that it was framed and agreed upon through the voluntary participation of normal, everyday citizens an even more stunning miracle. Skousen holds out the principles on which our nature was formed to be a great blessing to humankind, and takes it as one of his twenty-eight basic principles of government that we have the duty of spreading the Gospel of the Constitution to all parts of the world.

The heart of this book consists precisely of the twenty-eight aforementioned principles, which include some of the most basic building blocks of human emancipation. For instance, (2) A Free People Cannot Survive Under a Republican Constitution Unless They Remain Virtuous and Morally Strong; (6) All Men Are Created Equal; (11) The Majority of the People may Alter or Abolish a Government Which has Become Tyrannical; (14) Life and Liberty are Secure Only so Long as the Right to Property is Secure; (16) The Government Should be Separated into Three Branches--Legislative, Executive, and Judicial; (17) A System of Checks and Balances Should be Adopted to Prevent the Abuse of Power; (19) Only Limited and Carefully Defined Powers Should be Delegated to Government, All Other Being Retained in the People; (20) Government [should] Operate According to the Will of the Majority, but ... Must Protect the Rights of the Minority; (21) Strong Local Government is the Keystone to Preserving Human Freedom; (22) A Free People Should be Governed by Law and not by the Whim of Men; (23) A Free Society Cannot Survive as a Republic Without a Broad Program of General Education; The Core Unit Which Determines the Strength of Any Society is the Family. Therefore, the Government Should Foster and Protect its Integrity; (28) The United States Has a Manifest Destiny to be an Example ... to the Entire Human Race.

Now, I believe these principles are true and incontestably important, even the one about property. I also believe that we have important things to learn from other societies, but political structure is not one of them, and Skousen does not deny this. I am pretty sure, however, that it is not these aspects of Skousen's book that has inspired so many contemporary conservatives. Who, after all, in the United States today, doesn't believe in these principles? Certainly they are routinely violated in Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and a dozen other countries, but they are not in question here in America.
In some places, Skousen's political conservatism does shine through, but rarely in an unenlightening way. For instance, (7) The Proper Role of Government is to Protect Equal Right, Not Provide Equal Things. The problem with this is that Skousen leaves out a third option: a "proper role" of government might be to mitigate unequal outcomes when they are not the fault of the afflicted. For instance, one might argue that it is the proper role of government to provide equal educational and health care resources to children and the elderly. Also (15) The Highest Level of Prosperity Occurs when there is a Free-market Economy and a Minimum of Government Regulation. I believe this a severe overstatement of the correct balance between market and state. The correct statement is that the market is especially powerful in producing and distributing goods and services in a flexible decentralized manner, but it produces a host of externalities. Many of these externalities are good and useful, but some are highly destructive and in need of regulation by the state. It is for this reason that there never has been a prosperous market economy without a strongly interventionist state. I am confident that there never will be. However, the state is run by politicians and bureaucrats whose capacity to intervene wisely on behalf of the public good is quite limited. Therefore, we will never have a perfectly regulated economy and any attempt to achieve this end will doubtless cripple private initiative and lead to a bloated public sector. We simply must learn to live with the evils whose alternatives are yet more evil.

I think the most distinctive aspect of Skousen's political philosophy is his instance on grounding liberal democratic political philosophy in religion, while at the same time denying a central position to any particular religion, and therefore promoting vigorous religious diversity. Skousen recognizes that "Natural Law" rather than religiously "Revealed Truth," is the basis of liberal democracy, thus avoiding any sense in which theology should be the basis of political principles. However, he insists that a belief in God and a reliance upon religious institutions are necessary ingredients in maintain a health political culture.

Thus we have (4) Without Religion the Government of a Free People Cannot be Maintained; (5) All Things Were Created by God. Therefore upon Him All Mankind are Equally Dependent, and to Him They are Equally Responsible; (9) To Protect Man's Rights, God has Revealed Certain Principles of Divine Law. Skousen vigorously supports the "separation of Church and State," but holds that this achieves legal status only for the Federal government. State and local governments are not prohibited from mixing with religious principles, services, and icons, provided they do not favor on religion over another.

I was prepared to dislike this book, but was pleasantly surprised at how ecumenical a message Skousen has to offer. Moreover, the book is easy to read and hence will be accessible to the common citizen and voter who may, if lucky, get to read one or two books a year such deep subjects as the nature of American society.

This book is an outstanding work which helps today's grossly under educated American understand what the founding fathers were thinking when they created the United States. They were afraid of big government and worked to make sure that we had enough government to avoid chaos but not so much as to allow for tyranny. Today's federal government is exactly what they were trying to avoid and for all the right reasons. If the next 200 years is going to be as productive for mankind as the last 200 were, we all need to understand how deep the founder's understanding of the evils of big government went.

Not just students. This book should be in every American home and parents should be teaching the history lessons it contains to their kids. This is how a society preserves its heritage, by passing on the values and lessons of the previous generations for the betterment of the next.

It's not a novel or a history book and it doesn't read like one, but this book helps the average American fully grasp and understand the Constitution of the United States of America and its implications in our current government. We find out fascinating insight into the founders concerns and hopes for this great experiment of democracy.

Every current member of every branch of Government in the U.S. should have a copy and refer to it frequently. I can't recommend it highly enough!

Read for yourself why this nation is great and how men of lesser values have lead us a stray.

Every "true" citizen of this country should read this well written simple documented book. It explains what the founders, in their own words, wanted this country to be and the dangers that would come if we did not follow them. It is disturbing to see how far we have deviated from their blueprint.

This book concisely details the formation and structure of the federal government. The author details and references the founding fathers meanings and intents for structuring this union. The fear of a strong central government usurping the rights of the US citizens. Details the purpose of the Federal government.

Easy to read, enlightening.