These Truths

By Wayne Brown

From my Amazon review of "These Truths"

Everyone will agree that America is in a state of crisis, although opinions differ as to why and who is to blame. There is a strange comfort in knowing that this has always been the case - in fact, the constitution arose in a period of chaos after the revolution was won. Americans pretend, with varying plausibility, that the answer to their problems is to be found in the constitution or the god-like secret intentions of the framers. It is perhaps better to look for an answer in the history of America, starting before the arrival of Europeans.)

"These Truths"  forms a kind of spine around all the other history books about America can be understood. At over 900 pages, it barely scratches the surface but manages to make a kind of sense by being purely historical. The reader is left with a big stack of facts upon which he or she may draw conclusions and see patterns. America is its current crisis for reasons that stretch back to its founding and beyond. Americans see their form of government as an "experiment", which I think is wise. But they perhaps don't see the experiment as in its early stages. If you want to understand (and perhaps influence) what comes next, you need to understand the troubled youth of this country.

As Jefferson did, start with "These Truths".

The picture is from "Field of Blood " - a very entertaining (and tragic) account of how the compromises in the constitution finally blew the nation apart.

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