An inquiry into the nature and substance of American
patriotism..First, Berns ("Freedom, Virtue, and the First
Amendment", not reviewed) lays down the groundwork: In the US, the
Constitution frames our unalienable rights - our private rights -
of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As soon as we
agreed to be governed, however, and to enter into civil society,
that self-interest was necessarily tempered. As the first nation in
history to enshrine the rights of man, it has fallen as our lot to
champion those rights, marking "a unique character of American
patriotism: the devotion not only to country but also to its
principles." Not blindly obedient like the Spartans, Americans have
always envisioned theirs to be a thinking man's country, wherein
the citizens are not simply subjects of authority but, rather,
lovers of democracy and practitioners of self-restraint. But when
the state no longer appears to be safeguarding our private rights,
how will our liberty of conscience tell us to act? The Civil War
provided one such example, and Vietnam another, and Berns doesn't
prove that following the law is always in the best interest of the
state - on the contrary, the state can be strengthened by dissent.
But he arbitrarily conflates common law and divine law (they could
just as easily be disentangled), and he engages in a rather hollow
argument in an attempt to show that the founding fathers respected
the humanity of African-Americans - after which he writes a
trenchant chapter on the relative patriotism of Frederick
Douglass..A thought-provoking essay.. (Kirkus Reviews)
Samuel Johnson once called patriotism "the last refuge of
scoundrels," but was he right? Recent events, such as the bombing
of federal buildings and the formation of threatening militias in
the name of patriotism, suggest that he may have been on to
something. But the United States has also seen its share of heroes:
patriots who, over the course of history, have willingly put their
lives at risk for this country and, especially, for its principles.
This is even more remarkable given that the United States is
founded on the concepts of equality and democracy--tenets that
encourage individuality and autonomy far more readily than public
spiritedness and self-sacrifice.
Walter Berns's "Making Patriots" is a stirring and provocative
essay on precisely this paradox. How is patriotism inculcated in a
system that, some argue, is founded on self-interest? Expertly and
intelligibly guiding the reader through the history and philosophy
of patriotism in a republic, from the ancient Greeks through
contemporary life, Berns considers the unique nature of patriotism
in the United States and its precarious position as we enter the
twenty-first century. He argues that while both public education
and the influence of religion once helped to foster a public-minded
citizenry, the very idea of patriotism is currently under attack.
Berns finds the best answers to his questions in the thoughts and
words of Abraham Lincoln, who understood perhaps better than anyone
what the principles of democracy meant and what price adhering to
them may exact. The graves at Arlington and Gettysburg--and Omaha
Beach in Normandy--bear witness to the fact that self-interested
individuals can become patriots, and "MakingPatriots" is a
compelling exploration of how this was done and how it might be
done again.
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