The Patriot's Handbook

The Pocket Patriot: An Introduction to the Principles of Freedom. Excellent book, Everyone needs to have a copy and read it, if they care about their country; The Constitution; The Bill Of Rights; The Ammendments to the Constitution and much much more. Very good read.

from Columbus to Alan Keyes (in my 1996 edition), each document has a brief intro written by the author that sets context and importance of the piece. A "must own" for any American.

Just in time for the electoral smackdown between Gore vs. Bush, comes this small book written by a Tennessee college professor. Borrowing from a nineteenth century tradition when teachers presented students with handbooks that served as "a brief guide to the essential elements of the American Creed," Dr. George Grant has compiled such a compact anthology. This primer for citizens includes twenty-six golden oldies, including The Mayflower Compact, the U.S. Constitution, Paul Revere's Ride, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, the Sullivan Ballou Letter, and Patrick Henry's Liberty or Death speech, as well as mini-biographies of the founding fathers and the presidents. I will admit, though, that my first thought glancing through the book was not a patriotic one but a financial one. This sounds cheap, but why pay ten bucks for documents that are freely obtained from any library, many web sites, or any number of civic-minded organizations? For example, a buddy gave me a 55-page booklet that contained the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Washington's Farewell Address. Recently, a Washington D.C. think tank mailed me, gratis, a similar booklet printed on lovely ivory-colored paper. Maybe it's all part of a clever, vast conspiracy to foist upon overentertained Americans a Gideon's Bible-sized history of their Republic, in the hope they'll actually read the thing and - presto- know the truth. Of course, such enlightened souls will weep at how unconstitutional and banal politics has become in the age of Oprah. But I digress. What sets Grant's book apart from the pack is that he offers food for thought not usually served up in such compendiums. For instance, an 1895 speech, delivered by Booker T. Washington, the black educator who was born a slave, titled "Atlanta Exposition Address" is a welcome addition. As is Theodore Roosevelt's "The Man With The Muck-Rake." Reading Teddy's speech, delivered before the House of Representatives in 1906, makes one realize that he might very well be the original compassionate conservative. Another gem is the "The Forgotten Presidents." It profiles the thirteen men who preceeded George Washington in the fifteen-year period the country operated mostly as a confederated nation. The first of these presidents was Peyton Randolph of Virginia who began his term in 1774, and the last was Arthur St. Clair, a Scot, who was elected `president' in 1787. Grant's sketches of the official presidents are balanced, but I am going to nitpick at least one point. Professor Grant, the phrase "The business of America is business" was not uttered by Calvin Coolidge. Rather, Coolidge said, "After all, the chief business of the American people is business." And then he added, "Of course the accumulation of wealth cannot be justified as the chief end of existence." (I live near Coolidge's old stomping grounds in western Massachusetts, and we residents are in the business of fiercelydefending ol' Cal's legacy whenever the opportunity

Any student of American history should read the source documents in this book and be inspired to stand up for freedom.