We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future [Hardcover]

Matthew Spalding (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2009 | ISBN-10: 1935191675 | ISBN-13: 978-1935191674 | Edition: 1

Featuring a foreword by bestselling author and popular talk radio host William J. Bennett,We Still Hold These Truthsis an inspiring and enlightening look at ten core principles that define our national creed—and that we must reclaim in order to put our country back on track.

Editorial Reviews

Review

 The future of liberty depends on renewing America’s principles

In the midst of frenzied efforts to remake our nation—of endless government initiatives involved in virtually every aspect of our daily lives—Americans are increasingly concerned: How did we get so far off track? And how can we get America back on course? Matthew Spalding answers these questions by looking to the timeless principles and practical wisdom that have been the source of America’s monumental success. Spalding, an expert in American political history at The Heritage Foundation, the esteemed research and educational institution, calls for a great renewal of these unchanging principles—and a new appreciation of their preeminent status in our nation’s life.

 In We Still Hold These Truths Spalding explains and brings to life ten core principles that define us as a nation and inspire us as a people—liberty and equality, natural rights and the consent of the governed, private property and religious freedom, the rule of law and constitutionalism, all culminating in self-government at home and independence in the world. His enlightening and engaging tour through America’s founding not only recalls the deep roots of our “first principles” in Western civilization but also reveals their enduring lessons for today.

We Still Hold These Truths also offers a bracingly fresh analysis of how and why we have lost our bearings as a nation. Spalding masterfully examines the progressive assault on the Founders’ principles that began more than a century ago and that continues—indeed, is accelerating—in our time. Modern political leaders and cultural elites have all too readily abandoned the principles to which America is dedicated; even more troubling is how readily we all let it happen. Do we still hold these truths? Before we can rededicate our country to the core principles that made America the most prosperous, the strongest, and the freest nation in history, we must rediscover them ourselves. They must become again, as Thomas Jefferson said, “an expression of the American mind.” In a world of moral confusion, and of arbitrary and unlimited government, America’s principles are our best access to permanent truths and the best ground from which to question the current direction of our nation. Upon this sure foundation, Spalding lays out a strategy to reclaim our future, and to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matthew Spalding is the director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation. An expert on political history, constitutionalism, and religious liberty in America, he is the executive editor of the bestselling book The Heritage Guide to the Constitution and the author or editor of three other works. Spalding, who holds a Ph.D. in government from the Claremont Graduate School, lives with his family in northern Virginia.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING
“A clear and compelling case for America’s founding principles as an enduring source of real, practical guidance for today, explaining how we got so far off track and laying out how to get our nation back on course.”

—William J. Bennett, bestselling author of America: The Last Best Hope and nationally syndicated radio host

 “In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty. But what are those essentials? And where do we get them from? Matthew Spalding, both a scholar and Knight Templar of American constitutionalism, is uniquely qualified not only to shed light on these questio

ns but also to slay the intellectual dragons pitted against our Republic. This is vital armament in the battle for constitutional restoration.”

—Jonah Goldberg, editor at large, National Review Online

“In his splendid new book, Matthew Spalding provides a spirited defense of the truths asserted by our Founders when they conceived the American republic. Combining the skills of the historian, the philosopher, and the political scientist, Spalding shows why Americans in our time should be no less confident than our forebears in holding these truths, and no less forceful in asserting them.”

—Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, PrincetonUniversity.

 “This book recovers the timeless truths on which our self-governing nation was founded and which made America the model of human freedom. These first principles are the indispensable guides policy makers need now.”

—Paul Ryan, United States Congress

“At a time when the very freedoms we so recently fought and died for are being challenged on every front, Spalding’s robust defense of America’s universal principles reminds us why the United States must always be the champion of liberty, and why the self-evident truths it proclaims still inspire all those yearning to live free.”

—Mart Laar, former prime minister of Estonia

 “With his trademark clarity and considerable eloquence, Spalding explains and extols our country’s principles and tells us why the way forward depends on reclaiming them. We Still Hold These Truths is must reading for every American.”

—Mitt Romney

Book Description

“Invaluable . . . The book that Americans need now.”

—National Review

 

“The single best introduction to the political thought of the American Founding. . . . [Spalding] has reclaimed the best of the American political tradition for all Americans.”

—Weekly Standard

“Splendid, strongly written . . . [There is] no better starting point for our discussion than Mr. Spalding’s eloquent explication and defense of our nation’s first and Founding principles.”

—Washington Times

 

“These first principles are the indispensable guides policy makers need now.”

—Paul Ryan, U.S. Congress

 

“This is vital armament in the battle for constitutional restoration.”

—Jonah Goldberg, editor at large, National Review Online

 

“Invigorating . . . [An] excellent primer in American common sense.”

            —Claremont Review of Books

 

 

The Essential Guide to Rolling Back the Progressive Assault
and Putting America Back on Course

 

Many Americans are concerned, frightened, angry. The country, it seems, is on the wrong track.

But what is the right course for America? Knowing what we stand against is not the same as knowing what we stand for.

Just in time, the Heritage Foundation’s Matthew Spalding provides the plan for translating angst into proper action in this essential book—a #2 Washington Post bestseller. We Still Hold These Truths offers a bracing analysis of how and why we have lost our bearings as a nation and lays out the strategy to rescue our future from arbitrary and unlimited government.

 

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 267 pages
• Publisher: Intercollegiate Studies Institute; 1 edition (October 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1935191675
• ISBN-13: 978-1935191674
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #233,513 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Matthew Spalding is an expert in and teaches constitutional history, is an Adjunct Fellow of the Claremont Institute, and is the Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at the Heritage Foundation.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timely Book about the Principles of the American Revolution, November 8, 2009

By 

tahoedenizen "tahoedenizen" (Incline Village, NV United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future (Hardcover)

This is a well-written, thoughtful and very timely book that I believe every American would do well to read, regardless of political persuasion. Whether you're liberal or conservative, you will learn something about the history of American political ideas, and you'll learn a lot about how profoundly different our government is today from the American government of the 1787 Constitution. You'll encounter scores of amazing quotes from the Founders and 20th century figures that you've probably never heard.

The book focuses on ten principles: Liberty, Equality, Natural Rights, Consent of the Governed, Religious Freedom, Private Property, the Rule of Law, Constitutionalism, Self-Government, and Independence. It concludes with two chapters -- The New Republic, which describes the ideas of the Progressive movement, and American Renewal, which makes the case for a return to the ideas of the American Revolution.

The author, Matthew Spalding, is associated with the Heritage Foundation. This may cause many on the Left to dismiss the book without reading it, and many on the Right to expect another conservative manifesto, but both of them would be wrong. If you read this book, you will have a better appreciation of the history and evolution of ideas that gave us the government we have today. In The New Republic, Spalding does a remarkable job of connecting the dots from the new thinking about relativism and human nature in 1900 to the New Deal, Great Society, public education, and the role of the judiciary, in a single chapter.

You will gain from reading about the Founders' idea of natural rights, and the Progressives' very different idea of rights that should be guaranteed by government. These different ideas are at the basis of many political debates and conflicts. You may or may not change your mind, but you will better understand the "other side".

This is a book about ideas and principles, just as the subtitle says; there's only a page or two about current political issues. In American Renewal, Spalding is concerned with systemic issues such as civic education in high schools, treatment of the Constitution in law schools, how Congress delegates legislation to bureaucrats and regulators, and how government has become so much more centralized. But it's hard to see what would cause these things to change, unless there's a broad reawakening on the part of the American public.

The book begins with an introduction about the National Archives building in Washington, where the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution are on display. It quotes President Harry Truman, dedicating the building in 1952, saying that liberty "can be lost, and it will be, if the time ever comes when these documents are regarded not as the supreme expression of our profound beliefs, but merely as curiosities in glass cases." It grieves me to say this, but I think that is where we are today. Most Americans I know have at best a fuzzy idea of what these documents say, and almost no idea what they mean in practical terms. It's obvious that Congress pretty much ignores constitutional limits on its power (this book will help you understand how this came to be). But Spalding is optimistic: In his final chapter he writes "Our principles always await rediscovery, not because they are written on faded parchments in glass cases, but because the immutable truths of liberty are eternally etched on the human soul." I hope that he is right.

68 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enriching style and substance, October 30, 2009

By 

E. Kelly "kelly2035" (Nebraska USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future (Hardcover)

A prodigious work communicating the foundation of our American society and government. Although I've had the opportunity to read just the first two chapters, I find its style and substance enriching.

For me, so far, this book clearly explained: The Founders believed our rights do not emanate from our great Constitution, but pre-date that work. They are not directly from the great documents of Great Britain. Indeed, they do not come from this or that legal document at all (an easy mindset to adopt in America and the West). Instead, the author illustrates how our rights are Natural Rights springing from our human nature. And, that the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle all to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We Still Hold These Truths, January 27, 2010

By 

Thomas W. Sheehan - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future (Hardcover)

There is no book I have seen that better explains the theological, philosophical, historical, and political roots for the creation by the Founders of the American Constitution and the U.S. government than "We Still Hold These Truths." Anyone who has any interest in understanding and maintaining the freedom and prosperity that has characterized America for the past 200+ years needs to read this book.