[588] in libertarians
Laissez Faire Book News: Paul Johnson's ALMOST CHOSEN PEOPLE
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Chris Whitten)
Thu Jan 26 16:41:12 1995
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 1995 16:32:19 -0500 (EST)
From: Chris Whitten <lfb@panix.com>
Apparently-To: <libertarians@mit.edu>
Hear historian Paul Johnson tell how individual liberty
and moral principles made America great
THE ALMOST CHOSEN PEOPLE
by Paul Johnson
(reviewed by Jim Powell)
Recently Paul Johnson agreed to come from London and offer a
preview of his long-awaited history of the American people--sure
to be his biggest bestseller yet. Sponsored by generous Americana
collectors Richard Gilder and Lewis Lehrman, he delivered three
evening presentations at Manhattan's J. Pierpont Morgan Library. He
talked about the influence of religion on America from colonial
times to the present.
The place was packed. Among the notables present were *Wall
Street Journal* editor Robert Bartley, financial wizard Theodore
Forstmann and bestselling novelist Tom Wolfe. There were powerful
publishers as well as ordinary folks thrilled by Johnson's books
which passionately denounce tyranny and celebrate liberty.
The Laissez Faire Books microphone was clipped to Johnson's
tie, so you can now hear every word just as if you were in the
front row. What a dramatic speaker he is! You'll enjoy his
tremendous enthusiasm for the story. You'll feel the moral
outrage he directs at intolerance, and you'll relish his flashes
of wry English humor. I expect you may disagree emphatically with
Johnson on some points, yet you, too, will be uplifted by the
grandeur of his moral vision.
In his first presentation, Johnson covers the story of
America from its very beginnings until after the Revolution. He
tells how early colonists saw themselves as God's Chosen People
and set up oppressive theocracies, in some cases torturing
dissidents. He goes on to explain how immigration brought an
increasingly wide range of different people who undermined these
theocracies, preparing the way for unprecedented religious
liberty. Johnson talks about the most heroic pioneers of
religious toleration in America, Roger Williams and William Penn.
Throughout the Old World religion had combined with government
power to oppress people, but Johnson tells how in America freely-
chosen religious convictions energized people. He chronicles
early 18th century Protestant revivalism--the so-called Great
Awakening--which swept through the colonies and became America's
first political movement. The first truly national figures, he
explains, were religious leaders. He makes a case that American
Independence would have been virtually impossible without its
dynamic, voluntary churches.
In his second presentation, Johnson tells how Protestants,
Catholics and Jews formed a vital consensus around moral values.
Even Deists and athiests, he adds, generally lived by these
values. They became the basis of a unique republican philosophy
which helped turn immigrants into Americans. He shows how they
discarded their Old World hatreds and pulled together
successfully in this new nation.
To be sure, there were religious conflicts, and one proved
catastrophic--slavery. Johnson recounts how northern Protestant
churches inspired the abolitionist movement, while southern
churches generally mounted a moral defense of slavery. Johnson
explains how Lincoln, a man not known to follow a particular
church, made his most important decisions consistent with the
moral consensus which had developed during the previous century.
Despairing that America was falling short of its glorious ideals,
Lincoln referred to us as the Almost Chosen People.
In his third and most controversial presentation, Johnson
talks about the breakdown of America's moral consensus which
accelerated during the 1960s, as increasing numbers of people
became hostile to traditional religion. He tells how they turned
toward all kinds of new religious movements from sexual
liberation to environmentalism and multi-culturalism. He
denounces the proliferation of groups seeking special, often
conflicting "rights." He explains why he believes abortion (which
he opposes) is the most explosive issue since slavery and will
continue tearing America apart for years--like slavery, he says,
it cannot be resolved through compromise.
Johnson closes his presentation with an inspiring call to
renew the American dream. "The object of the melting pot," he
declares, "was to disarm the destructive nationalisms of the Old
World, based as they were on ancient linguistic, ethnic and
cultural antagonisms... This was to be a new kind of nation,
republican in its form, democratic in its politics, in its tone
and social intercourse following an agreed moral code. All this
was underpinned, indeed made possible only by the religious
consensus I have described."
However you may agree or disagree with Johnson, this is a
major story, and overall nobody tells it better.
Book No. HS6250 (3 audiotapes) 3 hrs. $27.95
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Please send this review to anyone who you think might be interested
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Thanks,
Chris
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Chris Whitten LFB@panix.com
Laissez Faire Books 1-800-326-0996
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