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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Nothing may be more American than distrust of government, but Garry Wills says there is something deeply wrong with this tradition. "It is a tradition that belittles America," he writes, "that asks us to love our country by hating our government, that turns our founding fathers into unfounders, that glamorizes frontier settlers in order to demean what they settled, that obliges us to despise the very people we vote for." Although A Necessary Evil is full of historical references, it is plainly motivated by contemporary politics: "I began this book in 1994, when the fear of government manifested itself in the off-year election of a Republican majority to Congress." Wills writes at length about matters such as the republic's founding, the 19th-century debate over states' rights, and so on. Yet the most passionate and engaging sections focus on antigovernment attitudes today, as embodied by the term-limits movement (the founders, he says, never were opposed to professional politicians), the National Rifle Association (whose defense of gun-ownership rights, Wills believes, is ahistorical), and abortion-clinic bombings (which Wills unpersuasively blames on Ronald Reagan). In his conclusion, Wills argues that government is in fact "a necessary good." It may do things poorly from time to time, and it may even do great harm. "But," to draw a parallel, "when marriages fail, we do not think it is because marriage is an evil in itself." A Necessary Evil is an erudite treatment of an important subject. --John J. Miller --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
In a masterful extended essay, Wills, an accomplished analyst of the American political psyche (and winner of a 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Lincoln at Gettysburg), explores, in all its guises, the great American distrust of government. Antigovernment sentiment is owned by neither the left nor the right, Wills explains: in the 1960s, for example, radicals adopted anti-government values, and Southern conservatives, though steeped in the tradition of states' rights, switched gears to affirm the authority of the federal government to wiretap, arrest and otherwise harass the radicals. The debate over the proper size and reach of the federal government is a moving target, but Wills hits it bulls-eye in chapter after chapter, whether he's debunking the mythology that has grown up around the militias that fought in the Revolutionary War (he argues that the Continental Army played a much more vital role) or clarifying the principles that undergird the separation of powers. He conceived of this book in reaction to the 1994 congressional election, feeling that the Republican Party's Contract With America embodied not a healthy wariness of power but a calcified, and dangerous, antigovernmentalism. Americans, Wills argues, need to stop "demanding from government qualities that should be sought, primarily, in other aspects of our social life." He asks readers to value the federal government for the things it can provide, from the quotidian (the highway system) to the majestic (equal protection under the law). Ultimately, his book is an eloquent plea for the maturity that would enable Americans, after more than 200 years, to view government as "a necessary good." (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
Nothing may be more American than distrust of government, but Garry Wills says there is something deeply wrong with this tradition. "It is a tradition that belittles America," he writes, "that asks us to love our country by hating our government, that turns our founding fathers into unfounders, that glamorizes frontier settlers in order to demean what they settled, that obliges us to despise the very people we vote for." Although A Necessary Evil is full of historical references, it is plainly motivated by contemporary politics: "I began this book in 1994, when the fear of government manifested itself in the off-year election of a Republican majority to Congress." Wills writes at length about matters such as the republic's founding, the 19th-century debate over states' rights, and so on. Yet the most passionate and engaging sections focus on antigovernment attitudes today, as embodied by the term-limits movement (the founders, he says, never were opposed to professional politicians), the National Rifle Association (whose defense of gun-ownership rights, Wills believes, is ahistorical), and abortion-clinic bombings (which Wills unpersuasively blames on Ronald Reagan). In his conclusion, Wills argues that government is in fact "a necessary good." It may do things poorly from time to time, and it may even do great harm. "But," to draw a parallel, "when marriages fail, we do not think it is because marriage is an evil in itself." A Necessary Evil is an erudite treatment of an important subject. --John J. Miller --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
In a masterful extended essay, Wills, an accomplished analyst of the American political psyche (and winner of a 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Lincoln at Gettysburg), explores, in all its guises, the great American distrust of government. Antigovernment sentiment is owned by neither the left nor the right, Wills explains: in the 1960s, for example, radicals adopted anti-government values, and Southern conservatives, though steeped in the tradition of states' rights, switched gears to affirm the authority of the federal government to wiretap, arrest and otherwise harass the radicals. The debate over the proper size and reach of the federal government is a moving target, but Wills hits it bulls-eye in chapter after chapter, whether he's debunking the mythology that has grown up around the militias that fought in the Revolutionary War (he argues that the Continental Army played a much more vital role) or clarifying the principles that undergird the separation of powers. He conceived of this book in reaction to the 1994 congressional election, feeling that the Republican Party's Contract With America embodied not a healthy wariness of power but a calcified, and dangerous, antigovernmentalism. Americans, Wills argues, need to stop "demanding from government qualities that should be sought, primarily, in other aspects of our social life." He asks readers to value the federal government for the things it can provide, from the quotidian (the highway system) to the majestic (equal protection under the law). Ultimately, his book is an eloquent plea for the maturity that would enable Americans, after more than 200 years, to view government as "a necessary good." (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
One of the dramatic developments of the 1990s was the emergence of self-styled militias training for guerrilla war against the federal government. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
lower law, compact theory, jury nullification, ratification debates Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Second Amendment, South Carolina, New England, Patrick Henry, New York, Articles of Confederation, Continental Army, North Carolina, San Francisco, Continental Congress, John Brown, National Guard, Virginia Resolutions, Rhode Island, John Adams, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, Declaration of Independence, George Washington, Henry Adams, John Jay, Vigilance Committee, Cold War, First Amendment, Hartford Convention New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
One of the dramatic developments of the 1990s was the emergence of self-styled militias training for guerrilla war against the federal government. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
lower law, compact theory, jury nullification, ratification debates Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Second Amendment, South Carolina, New England, Patrick Henry, New York, Articles of Confederation, Continental Army, North Carolina, San Francisco, Continental Congress, John Brown, National Guard, Virginia Resolutions, Rhode Island, John Adams, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, Declaration of Independence, George Washington, Henry Adams, John Jay, Vigilance Committee, Cold War, First Amendment, Hartford Convention New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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36
books
cite this book:
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- A Compilation Of The Messages And Papers Of The Presidents by James D. Richardson in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- A Compilation of the Messages And Papers of the Presidents by James D. Richardson in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- The Bill Of Rights (Government in Action!) by John Hamilton on page 58, page 109, and page 115
- For the People: What the Constitution Really Says About Your Rights by Akhil Reed Amar in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Civil Disobedience and Other Essays (Dover Thrift Editions) by Henry David Thoreau in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
See all 100 books this book cites
- Doubt and the Demands of Democratic Citizenship by David R. Hiley on page 22, and Back Matter
- Transnational Democracy (Transnationalism) by James Anderson on page 72
- The Production and Diffusion of Public Choice Political Economy: Reflections on the VPI Center (Economics and Sociology Thematic Issue) by Joseph C. Pitt on page 256
- A Date Which Will Live: Pearl Harbor in American Memory (American Encounters/Global Interactions) by Emily S.Rosenberg in Back Matter
- The Militia Movement: Fighters of the Far Right (Single Title: Social Studies) by Ben Sonder in Back Matter
See all 36 books citing this book
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