Book Review: What Does It Mean to Be an American
As a nation, we have strayed away from what our Founding Fathers envisioned.
Syndicated radio talk show host and author Mark Levin addresses this subject in his new book, Rediscovering Americanism: And the Tyranny of Progressivism. He writes:
“I often wonder what Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin and the other Founders would think about today’s America. What about the earliest Boston Revolutionaries, men like Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren, John Hancock and Paul Revere?
“Of course, they would be mesmerized by all the modern inventions and conveniences of everyday life, but what of the ubiquitous nature of the federal government? Surely they would object.”
Surely, indeed. Levin’s work is an emotional yet logical plea to Americans to do whatever they can to return their country to its most important – and sacred – values.
Levin worked in the Reagan Administration during the Eighties and was a chief of staff for Attorney General Edwin Meese. He also served as deputy assistant secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education and as deputy solicitor of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
As Levin points out so powerfully, the Founding Fathers were not just some dreamers who happened upon a workable system. They believed very strongly in what they were creating. And amazingly, they figured out exactly how it could eventually go wrong and what Americans should do to prevent that tragedy from occurring. Unfortunately, many people chose not to listen through the years.
The Founding Fathers warned that once the tyranny of England faded into the distance, our government would attempt to do the same thing. It would overreach its bounds and try to make people serve it instead of the other way around.
This No. 1 New York Times bestselling author doesn’t just paint a picture of doom and gloom, however. He also focuses on how we can try to save our exceptional country. He adroitly presents the case that it has never been more urgent for our country to return to the essential truths on which it was founded.
In Rediscovering Americanism, Levin effectively appeals to his fellow citizens that they do everything within their power to reverse the course of our misdirected nation. Not just for us, but for our children and for their children and beyond.
The Washington Examiner calls Levin’s book, “an assault on the media and progressives, and a call for Americans to take back their country.”
Levin told the Washington Examiner: “My new book covers a lot of territory – philosophy, history, economics, law, culture, etc. And I look deeply into what is meant by Americanism, republicanism, individualism, capitalism. What do we mean by natural law, unalienable rights, liberty and property rights? From where do these principles come? Why are they important?”
About the Author
Mark Levin was born in 1957 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He earned bachelor’s and juris doctor degrees from Temple University. The president of the Landmark Legal Foundation, he contributes commentary to several media outlets, including National Review Online.
Levin’s other books include Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto, the second best-selling book of 2009; Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America (2012), in which he describes the U.S. as a post-Constitutional country; and Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America (2005).
I am believer in Jesus Christ, I am conservative, and I am African American. But I have a question. Do you have a book in print now (an this could be that book) that you can recommend that embodies fundamental conservative values and deals head-on with the place AAs have in an America that you would look forward to living in…one that incorporates the part of history that is left out of our history books? Truth believed can provide effective solutions. I know that that part of history can fly in the face of the image of America we would like it to have been, but AAs are here to stay and we would like to be represented in conservative literature as though we have a place. We are negatively alluded to, if not outrightly criticized and scorned. Unless we face the facts of what actually happened…good and bad, predominantly post slavery, we’re actually undermining conservative values. The answer to a train wreck is not planning for more train wrecks or planning as though the train wreck didn’t happen. I hope this doesn’t get a knee-jerk reaction.
(The underlying assumption would have to be that we are created equal, of course.)
I like to listen to Mark Levine
he is serious about our Country
I love you Mr. Levine and I pray you will get your own tv show. We need people like you and Sean Hannity also Bill o’rielly. I do have Fox News and fox business news. Which I watch all the time. Keep up the good work. Also I would like to order your new book and later all the rest of them. Thanks so much.
Our founding fathers must be turning over in their graves when they see what is going on in the District of Corruption now.
President Trump seems to be bringing back Christian values to this country. Let us all pray that God bless President Trump.
Any one have a time machine, Living back then sounds better than now, especially for what is yet to come.
Mark Levine had a slot with Fox News is this true will he be on Fox News tv if so when
Mark Levin should be in Washington D.C. and should have the above all power to enforce the what the Founding Fathers wrote. They cared more about our great Country and were not like the many selfish, greedy people in Washington D.C. today.