The Idea That Is America: Keeping Faith with Our Values in a Dangerous World

Professor Slaughter's book concerning the essential ideas that make up the foundation of our country provides a great opening for discussions in the classroom, book club, or around the dinner table. It does not matter if you agree with her political orientation as she does a reasonable job of presenting multiple perspectives of each "idea". Even for the ones that are clearly biased, they can still be used to liven up a debate. Ultimately, however, the core values she discusses are things that we should constantly remember; engaging in civil discourse to debate how we get there is more important than following her recommendations.

What is the point of required courses in American history? It would be easy to dismiss the history lessons that we were taught in high school as revisionist propaganda to indoctrinate us with idealized pilgrims, patriots, pioneers, and transcendental pragmatists. Yet, more honest histories intended to correct the myths, such as James W. Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong and Carolyn Baker's U.S. History Uncensored: What Your High School Textbook Didn't Tell You, cynically reveal a dark and sinister past that fails to teach us what distinguishes America from Afghanistan or central Africa (other than geography and the efficient exploitation of rich natural resources). It doesn't help that we live in a time obsessed with rewriting the present through an entire industry devoted to political `spin' and what Stephen Colbert has aptly named "truthiness." Witness the hypocrisies and inconsistencies of our efforts to bring democracy to middle eastern oil-states, even while our special interest groups routinely buy political favors, to celebrate our system of justice, yet enable the war crimes of Abu Ghraib and Guatanamo, to rally to the cause of environmentalism while using natural resources at a per capita rate that exceeds almost all major first-world nations by a wide margin. What makes Dr. Slaughter's new book, The Idea that is America so important is that, by refocusing the history of our past deeds as a struggle to live up to our shared principles, it presents a third alternative to hopeless cynicism and blind nationalism. Slaughter, in this storied and passionate book, admits in detail troubling aspects of our country's unglorified past and present, while also providing a clear expression of our founding ideals and how they might lead us out of impotence. It is our values, she states, our deeply-held belief in the ideas of liberty, democracy, equality, justice, tolerance, humility and faith that can help us to illuminate our shadows again and again, and to find a way to see beyond them to a more hopeful future. It was our belief in freedom, for example, that led to the end of slavery, our belief in democracy that gave women and blacks the right to vote, and even our belief in justice and limited executive power that inspired the impeachment of Nixon. Thinking of those times in our history when adherence to our founding principles sparked changes that we now take for granted, I can, at least for the moment, feel guardedly patriotic (though decidedly not nationalistic). Slaughter never suggests that this war between a history of ideals and reality is easy. Rather she depicts it as a long and intensely deliberate process. And we should not expect a happy ending. Rather we should not see an ending at all, only a process that we are all a part of, one we should all be a part of, to the best of our abilities.

For over a year Army Captain Ian Fishback struggled to get his superiors to respond to the prisoner abuse he witnessed repeatedly in Iraq and Afghanistan: thwarted he finally contacted Senator John McCain and questioned the diminishing American ideals which would sacrifice individual rights for the greater good. Here foreign policy scholars Anne-Marie Slaughter discusses the foundations of American beliefs - liberty, equality, justice and faith - and considers how these values should be upheld in modern times. THE IDEA THAT IS AMERICA: KEEPING FAITH WITH OUR VALUES IN A DANGEROUS WORLD is an especially strong pick for high school and college-level collections strong in social and political issues and debates. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

This engaging book offers tough love for America. That means loving America enough to demand that it live up to its ideals. The book quotes Carl Schurz: "Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right." Seven values are discussed: liberty, democracy, equality, justice, tolerance, humility, faith. The touchy thing about writing about values is that people usually don't like to be told what their values should be. But this book never sounds preachy. Who knew a civics lesson would be so much fun to read? I learned many things about American history--some delightful tidbits on American thinkers and heroes, and some villainous deeds that made me wince. I gained a richer appreciation for what the Founding Fathers accomplished. The book is well-researched, well-written, and packed with information in a form that is entertaining and easy to digest. It should appeal to all political persuasions except anarchists. Other books have promoted a similar theme, but this one puts it in the context of globalization. Few of the problems facing us today are confined to national borders. America has no choice but to be a part of a global world; the book asks how we can maintain our values while doing so. In the vastness of space, Earth is a small village. The villagers need to get along with each other. The seven values are timeless. The book shows where in our history we have exemplified these values and where we have not lived up to them. It points out the misguided back-sliding of the present administration of George W. Bush. It offers guidance for the future. This book will help America take its place in a globalized world. I hope it gets read by Senators, Representatives, government officials, newly-minted Americans, and citizens everywhere. A fair chance to raise yourself up through your own wits and courage and hard work, regardless of your starting point, is the American dream. Keeping the dream alive--and worth fighting for--also requires wit and courage and hard work, along with constant striving to live the seven values.

This is a wonderfully patriotic book, patriotic precisely because it recognizes the country's failings and seeks to raise and rally citizens towards achieving the nation's purpose. As an immigrant, the book's core message-- that America is an idea, not just a place-- resonated strongly we me. It is the idea of America that attracted, and continues to attract, so many people to the United States in the first place, not jobs or potential material benefits but the founding values of the nation, the sense that this is somewhere different and special, with a mission, a worthwhile mission. Sometimes this idea has the unfortunate consequence of causing those who agree with it to be blind to America's shortcomings and those who see the shortcomings to question the belief itself. But not here, not in this book; Slaughter reconciles faith with the need for improvement. Very few liberals have been able to articulate a worldview quite this way and it is so important at a time like this when there is a grave danger that the disappointments of the past few years may cause Americans to be disillusioned with the American idea itself-- or at least with how it plays out internationally-- rather than just with the individuals responsible for failed policies.