A controversial view of America’s past and future that will appeal to Christian readers.
God blesses America, the author contends.
Admitting that “the idea that God had chosen this nation for great things does not sit comfortably with modern sensibilities,” Metaxas (Lecturer at Large/The King’s Coll.; Seven Women: And the Secret of Their Greatness, 2015, etc.) nevertheless makes a faith-based argument for American exceptionalism. He believes that the Founding Fathers incorporated into the Constitution the Golden Triangle of Freedom: “freedom requires virtue; virtue requires faith; and faith requires freedom,” an idea articulated by British social critic Os Guiness. Metaxas exhorts Americans today to revitalize freedom by behaving virtuously, insisting on virtuous leaders, and recognizing the significance of Judeo-Christian religion in the nation’s identity and destiny. “There are certain populations in Europe whose unbelief is only equaled by their ignorance and debasement,” writes the author, “while in America, one of the freest and most enlightened nations in the world, the people fulfill with fervor all the outward duties of religion.” Metaxas is convinced that God has played “a central role” in America’s history.” “What we have are gifts from God,” he writes, “intended for us to steward in such a way as to bless as many people as possible.” Americans, therefore, must take up God’s mission to share democratic ideals with the whole world. Among the historic events that he believes God influenced was the writing of the Constitution, in which the Fathers conceded, “the finger of the Almighty might indeed have been involved.” Acknowledging that the nation has not always acted virtuously, the author encourages citizens to celebrate love of country through the arts (he cites the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as both critical and inspiring); rituals (celebrating Flag Day); and memorizing poetry, such as “Paul Revere’s Ride.”
A controversial view of America’s past and future that will appeal to Christian readers.Pub Date: June 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-97998-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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