The Idea of America: How Values Shaped Our Republic and Hold the Key to Our Future - Softcover

H. Michael Hartoonian; Richard Van Scotter; William E. White

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0879352604 ISBN 13: 9780879352608

Publisher: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2013

Synopsis

At the heart of America, this book argues, is a great debate. And at the heart of that debate are our shared democratic values: law and ethics, freedom and equality, diversity and unity, common wealth and private wealth. The Idea of America shows how these values and the tensions between them have shaped and continue to shape our history.

About this title

Review:

A superb account of American life through the centuries. ...Readers will come away with a remarkably comprehensive understanding of America and all of its paradoxes. --Gordon S. Wood, author of Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815

The most difficult decisions in my careers in government, business, and academia have been those where two principles, each held dearly, seem to collide - for example, loyalty to a friend and fiduciary responsibility to an institution. When taken to the scale of our nation, such tensions can become monumental - as well as fascinating, instructive, and consequential. Rarely, if ever, has anything been written that examines the fundamental dilemmas faced by our nation as strkly and readably as does The Idea of America. --Norm Augustine, retire chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin and former Under Secretary of the U.S. Army

This book is a remarkable and invaluable civics lesson for all Americans. It views our national history through the prism of four fundamental value tensions that define our character and our culture and shows us how the idea of America emerges from our willingness to meet the challenge of balancing and reconciling these values. This is a must-read for us all. --Carol Berkin, author of a Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution and Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence

About this edition

• Publisher: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0879352604
• ISBN 13: 9780879352608
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176
• Editor: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation