What Would the Founders Say?: A Patriot's Answers to America's Most Pressing Problems [Hardcover]

Larry Schweikart (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 8, 2011

The #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of A Patriot's History of the United States examines ten current challenges.

America is at a crossroads. We face two options: continue our descent toward big government, higher taxes, less individual liberty, and more debt or pull our country back on the path our Founding Fathers planned for us. But that path isn't always so easy to see.

Following the success of his previous books, conservative historian Larry Schweikart tackles some of the key issues confronting our nation today: education, government bailouts, gun control, health care, the environment, and more. For each he asks, "What would the founders say?" and sets out to explore our history and offer wisdom to help us get back on track. What would really be compatible with the vision that Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and the other founders had for America?

Written in Schweikart's informal yet informative style, What Would the Founders Say? is sure to delight his fans and anyone looking for a little clarity on tough issues.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Sentinel HC; First Edition edition (March 8, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595230742
• ISBN-13: 978-1595230744
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #632,848 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Larry Schweikart is the co-author of A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror, and is a professor of history at the University of Dayton. He has written more than 20 books on national defense, business, and financial history.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Sentinel HC; First Edition edition (March 8, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595230742
• ISBN-13: 978-1595230744
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #632,848 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Larry Schweikart, a former rock drummer who opened for "Steppenwolf," is a professor of history at the University of Dayton. In addition to some of the books mentioned here, he has authored over 50 academic articles, dozens of book reviews, and has been a regular guest on "Fox and Friends."

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars They're coming for your ho-hos! May 17, 2011

By Burgundy Damsel VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

This book was phenomenal! Well organized, impeccably researched and wittily written it pulls no punches and dives into the tough questions. The author cuts through rhetoric, sifts through context and draws clear lines in the sand. The Founding Fathers come to life in these pages as real, imperfect but passionate and brilliant men. Their thinking patterns, reasoning and intellectual foundations took shape and projected forward clearly. I definitely came away from this book with new understanding and appreciation for the subjects covered.

I also greatly enjoyed the author's humor and tone. He applies his broad vocabulary effectively without making you feel like you need to go get a dictionary to keep up, and his dry-witted comments enlivened the pages. If everyone read this book, America would be a better place!

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Written May 5, 2011

By J. Hagg

Format:Hardcover

"What Would the Founders Say?," by Larry Schweikart is a well written and researched look at not only what the founders said about various issues, but also how they dealt with these issues in everyday life. The old saying that actions speak louder than words is evident here. Unlike many modern politicians the founders actions were most often consistent with their words. The book cover diverse subjects ranging for religion, government responsibly as to protecting the land and environment, the health needs of the people, stimulating the economy and full employment, keeping large business solvent, a large national debt, war and gun control. There are ten chapters in all. The book is a very enjoyable read. I especially like the part in the chapter on health needs of the people that gave an account of various founders dietary habits. For example, Washington was a big meat eater, while Jefferson ate mostly vegetarian fare. It gives one a better understanding of what life in Colonial America was like.

24 of 32 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Another well-written and refreshing Schweikart book for the patriots home library April 5, 2011

By Texas Patriot

Format:Hardcover

This is the fourth Larry Schweikart book I have read. The other three were Patriot's History, 48 Lib Lies, and Seven Events. It is very refreshing to have a modern conservative historian to learn from. He always strikes the right tone and sense of fairness in his books without being apologetic, overly preachy, nor misleading. In his latest book, Mr. Schweikart gives us a well-organized series of essays on 10 modern pressing political issues and looks to the Founding Fathers for guidance and answers. It is well-researched, detailed, and enlightening. Seven Events that Made America America was perhaps my favorite of his books (I can't explain why). However, this book is likely his most timely and well-organized. I recommend this book along with his others for anyone who wants to have real facts and arguments the next time you hear someone weigh in on the second amendment or the separation of church and state or any other topic where modern liberal-leaning conventional wisdom has it wrong.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Would the Signers of the Declaration of Independence be Comfortable With an All Powerful Government? May 4, 2011

By Audrey Ihrig

Format:Hardcover

The author Larry Schweikart is an expert historian. In his book "What Would the Founders Say?", he poses a series of questions. Some of these questions are:

* How important is religion, especially Christianity in matters of State and Government?

* What is the Function of Education and how much control should the Federal Government have over it?

* Is the Government Responsible for Protecting the Land and the Environment?

* Should the Government Stimulate the Economy and Otherwise Ensure Full Employment?

* Should the United States tolerate high deficits and a large national debt?

The author states the governmental philosophy and positions that our Founding Fathers took towards these and other issues and compares them with today's governmental policies. There is ample documentation to the polices of the Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe Administrations. The recurring theme is that the American citizens were fearful of an all-powerful Federal Government.

Larry Schweikart's book is very timely in this modern era when the Department of Labor is seeking ways to prevent Boeing from building an assembly line in South Carolina for their "Dream Liner", the Federal Reserve telling a bank that it can not have religious symbols in its lobby and the Supreme Court giving the OK to confiscate people's land for the benefit of developers.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars great book to read February 7, 2012

By mike

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

wow i was recommended by a friend to read this masterpiece. i'm glad i purchased it at a great price. i learned so much that i didn't know about the intent and purpose of why and how our founding fathers wrote our declaration of independence, bill or rights, and the constitution. i highly recommend this book because it will make you a more aware citizen to where our leaders are taking us- to destruction.

10 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Founders in Context -- Extrapolated to the Present June 2, 2011

By David M. Dougherty VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

The author, in his usual excellent writing style, puts the Founding Fathers in context so the reader can better understand how far the United States has moved from what they had intended. Jefferson and Madison were leading proponents of small government, and to use their names in conjunction with the Democrat Party today would surely be astounding to them.

The 10 Chapters deal with the following subjects:
1) The U.S. as a Christian nation and the concept of separation of church and state.
2) Public Education & who should control.
3) Private Property vs. government control.
4) The "General Welfare" clause -- to enable the people or control them?
5) The government as controller & stimulator of the economy.
6) The government's responsibility to assist favored businesses.
7) The government in managing the money supply & banking.
8) Government attitudes towards public debt & mortgaging the future.
9) War -- when and if it should be pursued.
10) Gun regulation -- if valid, by whom?

The volume is hardly revisionist history as claimed by one reviewer, but it is at odds with the history taught by leftist and atheist historians today. It would be amusing, if it weren't so tragic, that a reader(?) would throw away the book and denounce it after reading only one chapter because the facts presented did not conform to the reader's own faulty knowledge of history. I read the Economist every week, not because I agree with what it says, but because I want to better understand the world view of the state socialists in Europe and the U.S. and what they are recommending our President do to conform to that view.... I would recommend that atheists and socialists read this volume, study the facts presented within, and then re-evaluate (or not) their ideology accordingly.

For example, the idea of eminent domain as understood by the Founders was its necessary use for the construction of roads, port facilities, and forts to enable the defense of the nation and the public to prosper through its own development of a private economic sector. New London v. Kelo et at, abolished that idea with a vengeance.

Chapter One clearly presents why the 1st Amendment was constructed the way it was, but also that the Founders recognized and believed in the U.S. as a Christian nation. It was wrong for the limited Federal Government to establish a state church, not the least because a number of states already had state churches, AND THEY WEREN'T THE SAME. What was the Federal Government to do? Choose the religion of one state over another? Atheists should also remember that Jefferson played no part in the construction of the Constitution or the first 10 Amendments, and his letter to the Danbury Baptists was a PRIVATE letter to his former clients.

The historiography in Chapter One was absolutely accurate, and students should ask themselves today just how far the influence of atheist John Dewey has extended in education, and just how far the secularists will go in universities to deny the founding principles of this nation. Both Jefferson and Madison regularly attended church services while president, and the services WERE HELD IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES' CHAMBERS. Could that be done today? Washington wrote at least one documented prayer to the Protestant Christian God, Franklin recommended the Constitutional Convention open its daily meetings with a prayer, and Jefferson re-wrote the Christian Bible taking out all miracles, but leaving the message intact. Yet atheists today claim they were Deists (by definition, Deists do not believe in prayer.) Talk about revisionist history! Yet that is what is currently being taught in American schools and colleges today. The reader should ask himself, why? Why is it so important to delete Christianity from America? With what is it to be replaced?

This book is important as a reminder to all Americans of our roots -- where we came from, and how far we have "progressed" to a non-Christian, Fascist/Socialist all-powerful Federal Government regulated and controlled society. Every day, property rights are trampled into the dust and Christian morality scorned. One should ask himself if we are the better for all this "progress."

Read and treasure this book as a reminder of who and what we should be.

Highly recommended. Read more ›