Good books

[Free Vulcan]

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, by Steve Coll. The authoritative work in my book.

C O D E: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold. Shows you how computers work, from the most basic circuitry on up. Starts with a simple telegraph switch and a light bulb and builds from there. Fascinating read for any science geek.

[Joe Wooten]

Larry Niven - Ringworld, A Gift from Earth, The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton
Larry Niven/ Jerry Pournelle - Footfall, The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer
John Ringo - The Last Centurion, Under A Graveyard Sky, Into the Looking Glass, Ghost
Robert Conroy - 1901, 1862
Taylor Anderson - Into The Storm
Robert Heinlein - Time Enough for Love, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land
H. Beam Piper - Little Fuzzy, Space Viking,

[Gefn]

I just started reading Churchill's six volume set of WW II.

My dad left it to me. I feel honored (or should I write "honoured") to read it.

[Bigun]

[musiclady]

Just started reading Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, a story of Lewis and Clark, in preparation for my husband's and my trip up the Lewis and Clark Trail next summer (NOT in canoes!).

He's reading  The Journals of Lewis and Clark, edited by Bernard DeVoto.

It's remarkable to read of the courage and intrepid nature of those who forged this great nation.

@Idaho_Cowboy  @Smokin Joe

[Smokin Joe]

Just started reading Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, a story of Lewis and Clark, in preparation for my husband's and my trip up the Oregon Trail next summer (NOT in canoes!).

He's reading  The Journals of Lewis and Clark, edited by Bernard DeVoto.

It's remarkable to read of the courage and intrepid nature of those who forged this great nation.

@Idaho_Cowboy  @Smokin Joe

Tremendous and intrepid souls, indeed! Another book I'd recommend: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing and Nathaniel Philbrick--another incredible story, but I'd think twice before following in their footsteps!!

[Smokin Joe]

I really enjoyed Wool by Hugh Howey.  There's an omnibus edition through Amazon and I think now a "graphic novel" which I have not seen.  This is the sci-fi/fantasy genre.  The premise being that some kind of destruction has happened on the earth's surface and people now live in a big underground facility.  People are assigned jobs to keep the place running.  There is a camera system to the outside with a big monitor in the top story of the facility so people inside can see how horrible the outside is.  The punishment for committing a crime is to be suited up and sent outside with a ball of wool to clean the lens of the camera; the suit will protect them only temporarily from the outside elements and they end up dying.  Someone that gets sent outside finds out that things aren't what they've been told they are.

I also like Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss.  Another fantasy genre.  It's the story, told by the man, of his youth, growing up in a traveling troupe of musicians/actors, being made an orphan by some mysterious creatures who killed everyone in his troupe except him and his life's mission to get revenge on the killers.

And my third recommendation is The Remaining series by DJ Molles.  Another fantasy/end of the world type novel.  A flu/vaccine combination is mutating people.  The lead character is a man who was contracted by the US gov't to help re-establish civilization in the event of some extinction event.  He has counterparts in each state with the same mission.  After losing complete contact with his gov't contacts after receiving the alert to bunker-down, he makes the mistake of leaving his bunker a few days earlier than the protocol and, although carrying out his original mission, is considered to have gone rogue by whatever gov't is left.

Please don't judge the books based on my pathetic description of them! :)

Wool sounds interesting to me. But then I have been a fan of dystopian futures since I read The Time Machine in grade school.

[Smokin Joe]

The author is a composer, so there's a lot of musical analysis.  If you know the works, it's clear.  If not, skim.  ^-^

But the personal information, the letters and notes Beethoven wrote, the Heilegenstat Testament, his anguish, his multiple physical maladies, his deeply emotional personality, his "raptus"....where he went into almost a trance and composed, the tremendous resolve in spite of his deafness....... it's just remarkable.

He's been a hero of mine since I was 13 years old, and in spite of the warts, he's one of the most amazing and admirable people who ever walked the face of the earth.

Well, when you put it that way, it sounds a lot more interesting.

It is odd that we live in a time when everyone not already considered "normal" is counseled, medicated, browbeaten (or worse) for being different, even as "diversity" is allegedly "celebrated".
Yet almost no one who achieved tremendous advances in art, science, music, or any field requiring passion or dedication to truly excel has ever been what we would consider 'normal', whether they are able to function in the 'normal' world or not. Almost all have their drives, their passions, their moments of torment, and their obsessions, or they would never achieve the things they do.

[Smokin Joe]

Here's a list of some pretty amazing people from just one short period in our history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Medal_of_Honor_recipients_for_the_Vietnam_War

Most people know very little to nothing at all about most of them!  Why is that?

Most people don't know who Eddie Rickenbacker was, either. Audie Murphy, some do, some don't, but few under 40.

We used to celebrate our heroes from wartime, those who demonstrated courage, honor, valor, and above and beyond the call of duty an often self sacrificing love for their brothers (and sisters) at arms.

Now someone is called courageous if they say they are a homosexual
A 'Hero' for bouncing a ball,
or profoundly honored for a few lines of bad poetry,
and valor is a concept left on the sidelines in all but a very few lines of work, where it is practiced routinely.

It's hard to use terms like "courage", 'Heroism", and "honor" to describe the mundane if there are real heroes around. Those accolades, lightly applied, pale in comparison to those earned in combat, burning buildings, enforcing the law, or other situations which can, and too often do, cost the person the life they lay on the line for others.

[Smokin Joe]

The biggest FRAUD ever perpetuated is the idea that one can only become educated by sitting in a classroom somewhere!  Knowledge is free to anyone who seeks it and WANTS to know!  Especially so today!

Anymore, the fraud is becoming that one can become educated by sitting in a classroom.

[Smokin Joe]

Picked up a Kindle version of a good old fashioned Sci Fi/Zombie Apocalypse book. A Time To Die by Mark Wandrey. Runner up for the 2016 Dragon Award (best Sci Fi book).
https://www.amazon.com/Time-Die-Mark-Wandrey-ebook/dp/B01GGHJ1VY/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

For a zombie book, so far, the attention to detail is really good, plus a fun read. Kind of a cross between Bracken's EFAD and Maximum Overdrive (you'll get it when you read it).

That sounds good. I'll have to read it when I get another kindle. (One of my granddaughters borrowed mine and it never made it home).

[Polly Ticks]

That sounds good. I'll have to read it when I get another kindle. (One of my granddaughters borrowed mine and it never made it home).

It's a good investment in your granddaughter.   ^-^

[Bigun]

Anymore, the fraud is becoming that one can become educated by sitting in a classroom.

This is VERY true! 

[musiclady]

Well, when you put it that way, it sounds a lot more interesting.

It is odd that we live in a time when everyone not already considered "normal" is counseled, medicated, browbeaten (or worse) for being different, even as "diversity" is allegedly "celebrated".
Yet almost no one who achieved tremendous advances in art, science, music, or any field requiring passion or dedication to truly excel has ever been what we would consider 'normal', whether they are able to function in the 'normal' world or not. Almost all have their drives, their passions, their moments of torment, and their obsessions, or they would never achieve the things they do.

Many people in Vienna thought Beethoven was a mad man, looking homeless and disheveled, walking around beating the air and humming.  He was a social misfit, who most certainly would be medicated now to 'calm him down.'  (Perhaps that's why there haven't been any musical geniuses for awhile...).

But let's back up a bit.  If you know about Beethoven's parents and his background, it's just as likely now days that he would have been aborted.  Disease, alcoholism, not much hope for the future......

And I wonder how many in this generation who would have made a positive difference in this world have never had the chance to breathe their first breath because they weren't going to live a 'happy' life?

[Smokin Joe]

And I wonder how many in this generation who would have made a positive difference in this world have never had the chance to breathe their first breath because they weren't going to live a 'happy' life?

@musiclady
This is what happens when a culture trusts its own sanctimony more than Almighty God. When humans make predictions predicated on what they think creates happiness, they often eliminate or reject the very persons and things which The Almighty, in His Wisdom, put here to teach us, to enlighten us, and to bring us joy. Who knows what miseries might have been alleviated but for the slaughter?

[musiclady]

@musiclady
This is what happens when a culture trusts its own sanctimony more than Almighty God. When humans make predictions predicated on what they think creates happiness, they often eliminate or reject the very persons and things which The Almighty, in His Wisdom, put here to teach us, to enlighten us, and to bring us joy. Who knows what miseries might have been alleviated but for the slaughter?

Amen!

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Most people don't know who Eddie Rickenbacker was, either. Audie Murphy, some do, some don't, but few under 40.

We used to celebrate our heroes from wartime, those who demonstrated courage, honor, valor, and above and beyond the call of duty an often self sacrificing love for their brothers (and sisters) at arms.

Now someone is called courageous if they say they are a homosexual
A 'Hero' for bouncing a ball,
or profoundly honored for a few lines of bad poetry,
and valor is a concept left on the sidelines in all but a very few lines of work, where it is practiced routinely.

It's hard to use terms like "courage", 'Heroism", and "honor" to describe the mundane if there are real heroes around. Those accolades, lightly applied, pale in comparison to those earned in combat, burning buildings, enforcing the law, or other situations which can, and too often do, cost the person the life they lay on the line for others.

Eddie Rickenbacker was one of my heroes since I was a kid, so was Bud Anderson. I have a copy of Unbroken and after seeing the movie I haven't worked up the heart to read it just yet, but it's on my list.

If your looking for stories of true Heroism. Fight On is a great collection of short stories that will put hair on your chest. I like to read one a day with my Bible devotions. 
https://www.amazon.com/Fight-Collection-Stories-Persevered-Hardship/dp/1942603312

[Smokin Joe]

Eddie Rickenbacker was one of my heroes since I was a kid, so was Bud Anderson. I have a copy of Unbroken and after seeing the movie I haven't worked up the heart to read it just yet, but it's on my list.

If your looking for stories of true Heroism. Fight On is a great collection of short stories that will put hair on your chest. I like to read one a day with my Bible devotions. 
https://www.amazon.com/Fight-Collection-Stories-Persevered-Hardship/dp/1942603312

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.
I am gradually rebuilding my library.
Rickenbacker remains one of my heroes, not just for his flying, but during the time in the Pacific they were adrift in life rafts, and his survival after a (civilian) plane crash later in life.

Others can be found at http://homeofheroes.com/hallofheroes/index4.html
and another favorite from the era:
http://homeofheroes.com/wings/part1/2_luke.html
http://acepilots.com/wwi/us_luke.html

[EasyAce]

Most people don't know who Eddie Rickenbacker was, either.

The day Rickenbacker left for good in 1963 (his only mistake: underestimating the appeal and success of jets at first)
was the day Eastern Air Lines' death warrant was signed, even if it took almost thirty years to put the corpse in its grave . . .

[musiclady]

Eddie Rickenbacker was one of my heroes since I was a kid, so was Bud Anderson. I have a copy of Unbroken and after seeing the movie I haven't worked up the heart to read it just yet, but it's on my list.

If your looking for stories of true Heroism. Fight On is a great collection of short stories that will put hair on your chest. I like to read one a day with my Bible devotions. 
https://www.amazon.com/Fight-Collection-Stories-Persevered-Hardship/dp/1942603312

Wasn't Bud Anderson the kid in Father Knows Best?   

[corbe]

  Just finished this:



Next up:

[Bigun]

[corbe]

Here is another essential read for anyone interested in knowing the truth about what has happened to our country.

https://www.amazon.com/Dupes-Americas-Adversaries-Manipulated-Progressives/dp/1935191756/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1470849177&sr=8-1&keywords=dupes

   Just ordered it, Thanks @Bigun

[Bigun]

   Just ordered it, Thanks @Bigun

@corbe

You are very welcome and I assure you that you will not be disappointed!

[corbe]

   I've read Prof. Kengor before, God and Ronald Reagan, but it's been years and apparently I gave the book to someone cause I can't find it now.

   Thanks again @Bigun.

   Were you the one that recommended this to the forum months ago, another great, but to short, read?

[Bigun]

   I've read Prof. Kengor before, God and Ronald Reagan, but it's been years and apparently I gave the book to someone cause I can't find it now.

   Thanks again @Bigun.

   Were you the one that recommended this to the forum months ago, another great, but to short, read?

Could be!  I have it in my library and it IS a great book!

[chae]

It's not really political, but I read a great book called "The creation of Anne Boleyn".  I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the second wife of Henry VIII

[Gefn]

  Just finished this:



Next up:

The Churchill book looks good. Thank you, @corbe

[mountaineer]

I just read "Hillbilly Elegy" by J.D. Vance.

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class.

Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck. ... From his website

I saw so much of my own county in it, even though our part of W.Va. is not entirely in the Appalachian hillbilly region, geographically (more of the industrial Ohio Valley).  Vance is a contributor to National Review. I had to laugh out loud at the negative review published in leftist rag New Republic. They certainly don't want to accept that the welfare state that started under FDR has destroyed what used to be a hard-working people.

However, the NYT reviewer said, "Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance has inadvertently provided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election, and he's done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both Democrats and Republicans…Whether you agree with Mr. Vance or not, you must admire him for his head-on confrontation with a taboo subject. And he frames his critique generously, stipulating that it isn't laziness that's destroying hillbilly culture but what the psychologist Martin Seligman calls "learned helplessness"—the fatalistic belief, born of too much adversity, that nothing can be done to change your lot."

[Bigun]

I just read "Hillbilly Elegy" by J.D. Vance. I saw so much of my own county in it, even though our part of W.Va. is not entirely in the Appalachian hillbilly region, geographically (more of the industrial Ohio Valley).  Vance is a contributor to National Review. I had to laugh out loud at the negative review published in leftist rag New Republic. They certainly don't want to accept that the welfare state that started under FDR has destroyed what used to be a hard-working people.

However, the NYT reviewer said, "Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance has inadvertently provided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election, and he's done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both Democrats and Republicans…Whether you agree with Mr. Vance or not, you must admire him for his head-on confrontation with a taboo subject. And he frames his critique generously, stipulating that it isn't laziness that's destroying hillbilly culture but what the psychologist Martin Seligman calls "learned helplessness"—the fatalistic belief, born of too much adversity, that nothing can be done to change your lot."

@mountaineer

A friend asked me the other day why I had stopped writing.  I responded thusly; "Hell man! I can barely find the time to read all that needs reading! Where am I supposed to find the time to write anything?" 

Your suggestion has added to my to do list!  Sounds like an EXCELLENT read!

[mountaineer]

In posting about Hillbilly Elegy, I just realized it was due back yesterday to the library. Oh well.

[Sanguine]

I just read "Hillbilly Elegy" by J.D. Vance. I saw so much of my own county in it, even though our part of W.Va. is not entirely in the Appalachian hillbilly region, geographically (more of the industrial Ohio Valley).  Vance is a contributor to National Review. I had to laugh out loud at the negative review published in leftist rag New Republic. They certainly don't want to accept that the welfare state that started under FDR has destroyed what used to be a hard-working people.

However, the NYT reviewer said, "Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance has inadvertently provided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election, and he's done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both Democrats and Republicans…Whether you agree with Mr. Vance or not, you must admire him for his head-on confrontation with a taboo subject. And he frames his critique generously, stipulating that it isn't laziness that's destroying hillbilly culture but what the psychologist Martin Seligman calls "learned helplessness"—the fatalistic belief, born of too much adversity, that nothing can be done to change your lot."

So, what did you think, @mountaineer?  I've got this on my list to read.  Is it worth it?

[mountaineer]

So, what did you think, @mountaineer?  I've got this on my list to read.  Is it worth it?

Absolutely, especially if you have even the slightest familiarity with the region. Vance's family originally was from a "holler" in Kentucky. His grandparents moved to Middletown, Ohio, for the factory work after WWII (as did many hillbillies), and he recounts how they brought their hillbilly ways up north with them - and how it's been carried down through the generations, which he ties in with the welfare mentality and drug abuse that are so common among them today.

Much of the commentary you can find about the book relates to how these folks went from being die-hard union-supporting Democrats to voting for Bush - to some extent - and for Trump overwhelmingly. But it's really much more than this. Even read as just an autobiography, it shows how young Vance's life was shaped and almost pre-ordained by the hillbilly culture.

[Sanguine]

@mountaineer, OK, I will go ahead and download it then.  .

I've been trying to understand poverty, and thought that since this one was closer to my background than some other pockets of persistent and durable poverty might be it might be informative.  And, I've spent some time in the Appalachians.  Love the land there; don't quite understand the culture.

[mountaineer]

The book really describes much of white southern culture, not just KY and WV, in my opinion.  For all I know, it also may explain much of black culture.

As soon as I returned it to the library (darned 10 cent fine!!), I heard a staff member calling the next guy on the waiting list that he could come get it, so it's getting a lot of attention here. I checked out a book about the Battle of the Bulge, as a good friend who was like a second father to my husband and who died in 2015 lost his arm there. Will advise if it's any good.

[EC]

Know I recommended this to @Bigun  - didn't realize I hadn't made a general recommendation:

The Sixteen - John Urwin

It's worth the read - if you still have any illusions. 

[Bigun]

Know I recommended this to @Bigun  - didn't realize I hadn't made a general recommendation:

The Sixteen - John Urwin

It's worth the read - if you still have any illusions. 

Bought it! Read it and agree that it was worth the read!

[mountaineer]

I'm about halfway through a very good book on World War II:  "Those Who Hold Bastogne: The True Story of the Soldiers and Civilians Who Fought in the Biggest Battle of the Bulge," by Peter Schrijvers. He provides a readable chronological narrative, with first-hand accounts from soldiers from both sides as well as the civilians caught in the crossfire.

[corbe]

   Just starting 'DUPES' now, great read, so far.
   This looks interesting.


The American Founders Knew A Virtuous Republic Requires Virtuous People

Incredibly, it has become controversial to argue the founding founders supported natural rights and the need to cultivate moral citizenry. In the 'The Political Theory of the American Founding,' Thomas G. West offers a convincing and necessary corrective to modern scholarship.

Mike Sabo
By Mike Sabo
April 28, 2017
 


“Does this nation in its maturity still cherish the faith in which it was conceived and raised? Does it still hold those ‘truths to be self-evident’?”

This is the pivotal question the political philosopher Leo Strauss raised in the opening pages of his most well-known book, Natural Right and History. Quoting part of the famous second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, Strauss implied that the knowledge of founding principles and continued belief in their truth were vital to the success of the American experiment in self-government.

But if recent findings are any indication, Americans’ acquaintance with the founders’ principles and practices seems to be at a nadir. According to a report of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a majority of college graduates can’t recall “the substance of the First Amendment, or the origin of the separation of powers.” Perhaps most alarmingly, “nearly 10% say that Judith Sheindlin—‘Judge Judy’—is on the Supreme Court.” A big part of the problem seems to stem from the fact that of the 1,100 “liberal arts colleges and universities” surveyed, just “18%” require students to take a course on American history or government before graduation.

Though certainly more classes and study are necessary to correct these glaring deficiencies, scholar Thomas G. West suggests that the problems go much deeper. While professors are undoubtedly intelligent, he argues that their views on America—especially regarding our nation’s founding—have some serious flaws.

Truth Above All

In his new book The Political Theory of the American Founding: Natural Rights, Public Policy, and the Moral Conditions of Freedom, West sets out to remedy this problem. West, professor of politics at Hillsdale College and a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, gives a comprehensive overview of the founders’ political theory and the intricate web of policies that flowed from those principles. (For what it’s worth, I am former student of West.) This sober and deeply learned work represents the culmination of decades of serious study and reflection on the American founding. And it might just be the best book ever written on the subject.

In his previous book Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America, West defended the founders’ natural law and natural rights principles and controversial policies from historians and public intellectuals, liberals and conservatives who have attacked them as controversial according to contemporary standards. But as West says in the introduction to his new work, he did not understand at the time how much those principles were simply misunderstood:

After I published Vindicating, I became increasingly aware that for many people—often including scholars who might be expected to know better—the founders’ political theory might well be buried in some deep dark and long-forgotten pit. My task, then, has something in common with archeology—digging up old bones. But these bones, unlike those of long-dead Romans or Chinese, are of interest today because they claim to be living principles based on timeless truths.

What makes West unique among scholars and historians, then, is that he actually “treats the founders’ political theory as if it might be true.” In an age when an easy-going historicism envelops the American mind and History itself is thought to pick winners and losers, this standpoint is refreshing. West comes from the perspective not of the dogmatic skeptic nor the blind zealot but of a concern for the truth of things above all.

West divides his book into three overarching sections: an overview of the founders’ political theory, an argument for why they thought government should inculcate citizen morality and virtue, and an extended examination of their views on property and economics. As he reasonably argues in the book’s introduction, before we can praise or condemn the founders, we must “first know” both “why the founders set up the regime they did” and “how their political order worked.”

West more than lives up to the daunting task he sets before himself.

The Founders’ Political Theory of Natural Rights

In the book’s first section, West argues that a “natural rights doctrine” is at “the core of the founders’ political theory.” This stance sits squarely against the bulk of scholarship on the American founding, which tends to view the founders’ theory as a combination of liberalism (natural rights), republicanism, Scottish enlightenment theory, British common law, and Protestant theology, among other elements.

West, by contrast, posits that although “the conditions and traditions of colonial America before 1776” were surely important, natural rights determined “which traditions would continue and which would be discarded.” This argument is a useful corrective to the popular idea in certain circles that America is a “proposition nation”—meaning that it is defined solely by “abstract principles” without regard to any other considerations such as citizen character.

Citing a copious amount of primary sources, West meticulously pieces together the founders’ political theory. Natural rights are the inalienable liberties all human beings possess, not through government largesse, but by nature. Because “all men are created equal” in the sense “that there are no natural masters or natural slaves,” everyone has the natural liberty to order his life “without interference from other people.” Among these rights are the right to life, possessing and acquiring property, religious liberty, and to seek happiness—what West calls “the goal of human life.”

On the reverse side of rights are the duties all men have not to transcend the moral limits on the use of their rights. The founders called these natural limits the law of nature, or natural law. Natural law, which can be discovered through the faculty of reason, is “both the source of natural rights and a statement of our duties.” West argues that “natural liberty exists only within the moral limits of the law of nature.” Liberty, in other words, does not equal license.

Because all men are created equal, just government can only be founded on the unanimous consent of individuals who want to protect their rights, which are insecure outside of civil society. (The founders called the condition in which there is no common authority to protect against infringements of one’s rights the state of nature.) “The logic of the equality principle,” West contends, “necessarily leads to the right of the people to rule themselves in person or through elected representatives.” Consent, then, must be granted not only at the founding of a regime but also in the course of its operation, lest it degenerate into a tyranny.

Finally, West notes that the government’s purpose is to secure the natural rights of all who are under its auspices. Government violations of the people’s rights may justify the people to resort to what John Locke called an “appeal to heaven”—the natural right of the people to revolt and institute a new government that secures their safety and happiness.

Teaching Virtue

With the founders’ political theory fully sketched out, West turns to an important argument about how they conceived of virtue and the government’s role in inculcating it among citizens.

Against the view of scholars such as Thomas Pangle, Allan Bloom, and Harvey Mansfield, West contends that the founders were far from being concerned only with low bourgeois virtues, such as acquisitiveness, and comfortable self-preservation. In fact, they considered “virtue as a condition of freedom and a requirement of the laws of nature.”

West argues forcefully that the project of sustaining our republic is not satisfied simply by getting government out of the way.

Many public documents from the time spoke of the need for social and republican virtues within the populace such as justice (i.e., obeying the law), moderation, benevolence, temperance, industry, frugality, religious piety, and a responsibility among the people’s representatives to secure their good. In times of war, however, virtues of strength such as courage, leadership, bravery, vigor, and manly exertion are required. “Virtue is of concern to government not as an end in itself, but as a means to security and ultimately to happiness,” West concludes.

Opposed to the libertarian ethos that has consumed much of the Right, West argues forcefully that the project of sustaining our republic is not satisfied simply by getting government out of the way. The founders thought it was the duty of government (at least at the state level) to encourage virtue through public education, support for religious instruction, and a vast network of laws that discourage crime and promote stable families.

West understands, therefore, the decisive role politics plays in shaping the character of the regime. Contra Andrew Breitbart and most commentators on politics today, politics in its highest sense is not downstream from culture. “To know whether a culture is good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, liberating or oppressive,” Charles Kesler once remarked, “one has to be able to look at it from outside or above the culture.” That is, in the founders’ view culture should conform to principles of political justice that are true for all men everywhere.

While West ably proves his arguments here, one wishes he would have critiqued more recent scholarship such as the work of Yuval Levin, whose impressive books and essays deserve a careful and thoughtful appraisal.

Property Rights and Economics

<..snip..>

http://thefederalist.com/2017/04/28/the-american-founders-knew-a-virtuous-republic-requires-virtuous-people/

[EasyAce]

Just read . . .

[Bigun]

   Just starting 'DUPES' now, great read, so far.
   This looks interesting.


The American Founders Knew A Virtuous Republic Requires Virtuous People

Incredibly, it has become controversial to argue the founding founders supported natural rights and the need to cultivate moral citizenry. In the 'The Political Theory of the American Founding,' Thomas G. West offers a convincing and necessary corrective to modern scholarship.

Mike Sabo
By Mike Sabo
April 28, 2017
 


“Does this nation in its maturity still cherish the faith in which it was conceived and raised? Does it still hold those ‘truths to be self-evident’?”

This is the pivotal question the political philosopher Leo Strauss raised in the opening pages of his most well-known book, Natural Right and History. Quoting part of the famous second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, Strauss implied that the knowledge of founding principles and continued belief in their truth were vital to the success of the American experiment in self-government.

But if recent findings are any indication, Americans’ acquaintance with the founders’ principles and practices seems to be at a nadir. According to a report of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a majority of college graduates can’t recall “the substance of the First Amendment, or the origin of the separation of powers.” Perhaps most alarmingly, “nearly 10% say that Judith Sheindlin—‘Judge Judy’—is on the Supreme Court.” A big part of the problem seems to stem from the fact that of the 1,100 “liberal arts colleges and universities” surveyed, just “18%” require students to take a course on American history or government before graduation.

Though certainly more classes and study are necessary to correct these glaring deficiencies, scholar Thomas G. West suggests that the problems go much deeper. While professors are undoubtedly intelligent, he argues that their views on America—especially regarding our nation’s founding—have some serious flaws.

Truth Above All

In his new book The Political Theory of the American Founding: Natural Rights, Public Policy, and the Moral Conditions of Freedom, West sets out to remedy this problem. West, professor of politics at Hillsdale College and a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, gives a comprehensive overview of the founders’ political theory and the intricate web of policies that flowed from those principles. (For what it’s worth, I am former student of West.) This sober and deeply learned work represents the culmination of decades of serious study and reflection on the American founding. And it might just be the best book ever written on the subject.

In his previous book Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America, West defended the founders’ natural law and natural rights principles and controversial policies from historians and public intellectuals, liberals and conservatives who have attacked them as controversial according to contemporary standards. But as West says in the introduction to his new work, he did not understand at the time how much those principles were simply misunderstood:

After I published Vindicating, I became increasingly aware that for many people—often including scholars who might be expected to know better—the founders’ political theory might well be buried in some deep dark and long-forgotten pit. My task, then, has something in common with archeology—digging up old bones. But these bones, unlike those of long-dead Romans or Chinese, are of interest today because they claim to be living principles based on timeless truths.

What makes West unique among scholars and historians, then, is that he actually “treats the founders’ political theory as if it might be true.” In an age when an easy-going historicism envelops the American mind and History itself is thought to pick winners and losers, this standpoint is refreshing. West comes from the perspective not of the dogmatic skeptic nor the blind zealot but of a concern for the truth of things above all.

West divides his book into three overarching sections: an overview of the founders’ political theory, an argument for why they thought government should inculcate citizen morality and virtue, and an extended examination of their views on property and economics. As he reasonably argues in the book’s introduction, before we can praise or condemn the founders, we must “first know” both “why the founders set up the regime they did” and “how their political order worked.”

West more than lives up to the daunting task he sets before himself.

The Founders’ Political Theory of Natural Rights

In the book’s first section, West argues that a “natural rights doctrine” is at “the core of the founders’ political theory.” This stance sits squarely against the bulk of scholarship on the American founding, which tends to view the founders’ theory as a combination of liberalism (natural rights), republicanism, Scottish enlightenment theory, British common law, and Protestant theology, among other elements.

West, by contrast, posits that although “the conditions and traditions of colonial America before 1776” were surely important, natural rights determined “which traditions would continue and which would be discarded.” This argument is a useful corrective to the popular idea in certain circles that America is a “proposition nation”—meaning that it is defined solely by “abstract principles” without regard to any other considerations such as citizen character.

Citing a copious amount of primary sources, West meticulously pieces together the founders’ political theory. Natural rights are the inalienable liberties all human beings possess, not through government largesse, but by nature. Because “all men are created equal” in the sense “that there are no natural masters or natural slaves,” everyone has the natural liberty to order his life “without interference from other people.” Among these rights are the right to life, possessing and acquiring property, religious liberty, and to seek happiness—what West calls “the goal of human life.”

On the reverse side of rights are the duties all men have not to transcend the moral limits on the use of their rights. The founders called these natural limits the law of nature, or natural law. Natural law, which can be discovered through the faculty of reason, is “both the source of natural rights and a statement of our duties.” West argues that “natural liberty exists only within the moral limits of the law of nature.” Liberty, in other words, does not equal license.

Because all men are created equal, just government can only be founded on the unanimous consent of individuals who want to protect their rights, which are insecure outside of civil society. (The founders called the condition in which there is no common authority to protect against infringements of one’s rights the state of nature.) “The logic of the equality principle,” West contends, “necessarily leads to the right of the people to rule themselves in person or through elected representatives.” Consent, then, must be granted not only at the founding of a regime but also in the course of its operation, lest it degenerate into a tyranny.

Finally, West notes that the government’s purpose is to secure the natural rights of all who are under its auspices. Government violations of the people’s rights may justify the people to resort to what John Locke called an “appeal to heaven”—the natural right of the people to revolt and institute a new government that secures their safety and happiness.

Teaching Virtue

With the founders’ political theory fully sketched out, West turns to an important argument about how they conceived of virtue and the government’s role in inculcating it among citizens.

Against the view of scholars such as Thomas Pangle, Allan Bloom, and Harvey Mansfield, West contends that the founders were far from being concerned only with low bourgeois virtues, such as acquisitiveness, and comfortable self-preservation. In fact, they considered “virtue as a condition of freedom and a requirement of the laws of nature.”

West argues forcefully that the project of sustaining our republic is not satisfied simply by getting government out of the way.

Many public documents from the time spoke of the need for social and republican virtues within the populace such as justice (i.e., obeying the law), moderation, benevolence, temperance, industry, frugality, religious piety, and a responsibility among the people’s representatives to secure their good. In times of war, however, virtues of strength such as courage, leadership, bravery, vigor, and manly exertion are required. “Virtue is of concern to government not as an end in itself, but as a means to security and ultimately to happiness,” West concludes.

Opposed to the libertarian ethos that has consumed much of the Right, West argues forcefully that the project of sustaining our republic is not satisfied simply by getting government out of the way. The founders thought it was the duty of government (at least at the state level) to encourage virtue through public education, support for religious instruction, and a vast network of laws that discourage crime and promote stable families.

West understands, therefore, the decisive role politics plays in shaping the character of the regime. Contra Andrew Breitbart and most commentators on politics today, politics in its highest sense is not downstream from culture. “To know whether a culture is good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, liberating or oppressive,” Charles Kesler once remarked, “one has to be able to look at it from outside or above the culture.” That is, in the founders’ view culture should conform to principles of political justice that are true for all men everywhere.

While West ably proves his arguments here, one wishes he would have critiqued more recent scholarship such as the work of Yuval Levin, whose impressive books and essays deserve a careful and thoughtful appraisal.

Property Rights and Economics

<..snip..>

http://thefederalist.com/2017/04/28/the-american-founders-knew-a-virtuous-republic-requires-virtuous-people/

Dr. West is a brilliant man.  I'll buy the book for sure!

[Gefn]

 need some good books to read, I think they would cheer me.

I got to get my carcass over to Barnes and Noble.

I like library books but I can't highlight them.


When I was in the hospital my mother's best friend bought me "The cats of Instagram "

I highly recommend it. It's s picture book of cute cats.   

[EasyAce]

need some good books to read, I think they would cheer me.

I got to get my carcass over to Barnes and Noble.

I like library books but I can't highlight them.


When I was in the hospital my mother's best friend bought me "The cats of Instagram "

I highly recommend it. It's s picture book of cute cats.   

@Freya
Don't forget to hunt eBay and Amazon. You might find some real jewels, as I did (this book arrived yesterday
and it's an original edition I got for a measly $11 . . .)

[EC]

I collect the old MAD magazine books from the 50s to the 70s. Got nigh on 50 of them now - just missing 5, I think. Love the style of humor they had then. Now though ... Ecch.

[mountaineer]

I just read "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr and was enthralled. Then I found a ridiculous critique of the book by someone who appears not to have read it, and became annoyed.

[Polly Ticks]

I just read "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr and was enthralled. Then I found a ridiculous critique of the book by someone who appears not to have read it, and became annoyed.

The Amazon reviewers seem overwhelmingly to agree with you over the other guy with the snarky review.

I finally got around to "reading" Pillars of the Earth.  I bought it on Audible quite awhile back, but had put off tackling 41 hours of listening time until recently.

[EC]

I finally got around to "reading" Pillars of the Earth.  I bought it on Audible quite awhile back, but had put off tackling 41 hours of listening time until recently.

One of my favorite books of all time.  ^-^

[Polly Ticks]

One of my favorite books of all time.  ^-^

I've been wondering now why I put it off for so long. 
 

[EC]

The TV series isn't bad, either.

[Gefn]

I'm reading @EC 's book.

So far it isn't bad.