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Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story
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About Land Of Hope: An Invitation To The Great American
Product Description We have a glut of text and trade books on American history. But what we don’t have is a compact, inexpensive, authoritative, and compulsively readable book that will offer to American readers a clear, informative, and inspiring narrative account of their own country. Such an account can shape and deepen their sense of the land they inhabit and, by making them understand that land’s roots, and share in its memories, will equip them for the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship in American society. It will provide them with an enduring sense of membership in one of the greatest enterprises in human history: the exciting, perilous, and consequential story of their own country. The existing texts simply fail to tell that story with energy and conviction. They are more likely to reflect the skeptical or partial outlook of specialized professional academic historians, an outlook that leads to a fragmented and fractured view of modern American society and fails to convey to American readers the greater arc of their own history. Or they disproportionately reflect the outlook of radical critics of American society, whose one-sided accounts lack the balance of a larger perspective and have had an enormous, and largely negative, effect upon the teaching of American history in American high schools and colleges. This state of affairs cannot continue for long without producing serious consequences. A great nation needs and deserves a great and coherent narrative, as an expression of its own self-understanding; and it needs to be able to convey that narrative to its young effectively. It perhaps goes without saying that such a narrative cannot be a fairy tale or a whitewash of the past; it will not be convincing if it is not truthful. But there is no necessary contradiction between an honest account of the American past and an inspiring one. This account seeks to provide both. Review “At a time of severe partisanship that has infected many accounts of our nation’s past, this brilliant new history, Land of Hope, written in lucid and often lyrical prose, is much needed. It is accurate, honest, and free of the unhistorical condescension so often paid to the people of America’s past. This generous but not uncritical story of our nation’s history ought to be read by every American. It explains and justifies the right kind of patriotism.” ― Gordon S. Wood, author of Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson “Those who are acquainted with Wilfred McClay’s writing will not be surprised that Land of Hope, his latest book, is a lucid and engaging account of the ‘great American story.’ McClay is a charming storyteller―and a first-rate scholar and appreciator of America’s political and cultural development.” ― Michael Barone, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, senior political analyst at the Washington Examiner, and coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics “We’ve long needed a readable text that truly tells the American story, neither hiding the serious injustices in our history nor soft-pedaling our nation’s extraordinary achievements. Such a text cannot be a mere compilation of facts, and it certainly could not be written by someone lacking a deep understanding and appreciation of America’s constitutional ideals and institutions. Bringing his impressive skills as a political theorist, historian, and writer to bear, Wilfred McClay has supplied the need.” ― Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University “In a time when America seems pulled in opposite directions, Wilfred McClay has written a necessary book―the most balanced, nuanced history of the United States I have read in the past fifty years.” ― Daniel Henninger, deputy editor, editorial page, The Wall Street Journal “Too many recent historians have tried to rewrite America’s history as a tale of squalor and exploitation. Wilfred McClay tells it like it is: as a story of hope.” ― Glen
