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Loading... The American Revelation: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country from the Puritans to the Cold War (original 2005; edition 2005)by Neil Baldwin neurodrew | Jun 13, 2008 |   Neil Baldwin Historian Baldwin chooses 10 individuals who articulated or lived the American ideals of tolerance, service, and the idea of American uniqueness in the world. All were not the obvious founding fathers, but others more obscure, and therefore more interesting. Jane Addams, founder of Hull House, and George Marshall, the secretary of state for the American aid plan after the war, were the most memorable portraits. Henry George, self taught economist and Pierre du Simitiere, the artist who drew the great seal of the United States, were the most obscure. Enjoyable, interesting history. (  ) neurodrew | Jun 13, 2008 | The 10 ideas that shaped America is quite an important topic of conversation, really. Why DID we get this way, exactly? How did we come about? Why do we have the dichotomy of a nation founded by religions, but a government free of them? Why did we shun socialism when Europe embraced it? Unfortunately, after reading this book I did not feel that any questions were answered. Neal Baldwin is easy to read, that much can surely be said. But each chapter was so divorced from the other as to leave the reader imagining that he were reading a simple volume of selected essays from various sources with no overriding theme. To be fair, Mr. Baldwin does warn that he didn't intend any overarching theme, but that sort of makes the book a bit hollow. And, my biggest problem with this small tome is that he ignored the Founder's ideas of representative democracy leaving it out of the mix. These ideas were the bedrock of our nation without which we would not have had an America in the first place. I believe his second chapter should have been on the Declaration of Independence. Also it would have helped to have some thread enlightening us as to how the preceding chapter foreshadowed the next. After all, enlightenment ( that of showing the reader what great ideas led Americans to today) was the goal of Mr. Baldwin's work. Still, the book did lead me to seek out some other sources and that is valuable in and of itself. So, I give it three stars. An interesting read, but not what it could have been. (  ) WarnerToddHuston | Apr 7, 2007 |  Kindlegohome | Jul 15, 2015 | |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)973History and Geography North America United StatesLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (2.83)
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Neil Baldwin
Historian Baldwin chooses 10 individuals who articulated or lived the American ideals of tolerance, service, and the idea of American uniqueness in the world. All were not the obvious founding fathers, but others more obscure, and therefore more interesting. Jane Addams, founder of Hull House, and George Marshall, the secretary of state for the American aid plan after the war, were the most memorable portraits. Henry George, self taught economist and Pierre du Simitiere, the artist who drew the great seal of the United States, were the most obscure. Enjoyable, interesting history. (