By George Grant
G.K. Chesterton once quipped that America is the only nation ever founded on a creed. While other nations focus on ethnicity, geography, ideology, or tradition, America was founded on certain ideas about freedom, human dignity, and social responsibility. The profound peculiarity was what most struck Alexis de Tocqueville when he visited in the early nineteenth century.
About the same time, American educators began to realize that if their experiment in liberty was to succeed, informed patriotism must be instilled in the young. Thus rising citizens were presented with a small handbook, a brief guide to the essential elements of the American Creed.
"The Patriot's Handbook: A Citizenship Primer for a New Generation of Americans" is an updated version of that vaunted tradition. A citizenship primer for a new generation of Americans, it includes such documents as The Mayflower Compact, Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech, The Declaration of Independence, biographies of the Founding Fathers (including the forgotten presidents), the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the amendments to the constitution, "The Star-Spangled Banner," and biographical sketches of the lives of the residents.
A thorough presentation of the foundational ideas, documents, events, and personalities of American freedom, it is an ideal resource for citizens contemplating the direction they wish the nation to take during the pivotal years to come.
This incredible work is divided into four sections:
Part I documents the early settlement of American shores by colonists and describes the motivations and innovations of their pioneering efforts - efforts that eventually led to the extraordinary freedoms we enjoy today.Part II details the establishment of American Independence. Though much of this story has been in well documented in our American lore, it is a story worth repeating.
Part III surveys the growing pains of America's quick territorial expansion across the continent and its quick economic ascendancy around the world. Here we witness the birth of modernity and the shape of the world we have come to know.
Part IV brings the story of American freedom up to date with a documentary snapshot of the modern era - including the titanic struggle to uphold the American creed amid fierce onslaught of contemporary controversy.
This anthology of historical and citizenship resources is offered in the hope that the ideas that made America both great and good may once again become the common currency of our national life.
It is offered in the hope that the secret of our genius and power might be broadcast far and wide - and thus, essentially, cease to be a secret.
Second Edition. Paperback, 480 pages.
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