Upon reading “The Founders’ Key” by Larry P. Arnn, President
of Hillsdale College, I am even more convinced America is at a cross
roads. We are a nation divided, with one
side endeavoring to preserve our constitutional heritage and the other seeking
to change it.
But what is our heritage?
What is the foundation we are built upon?
Do we even know and understand what our founding documents mean?
Arnn takes the reader step by step through the dilemma American’s
face as both sides war over the meaning of our Constitution and Declaration of
Independence. He also breaks down the
language found in those documents so we can understand how the founders
intended them to be read and utilized.
He addresses common arguments employed to discourage
American’s from preserving our foundation for a more progressive path leading
toward bigger government.
An example of this perversion of history is taking the issue
of slavery out of context from the reality it was in 1776. The “modern” WORLD, not just America,
utilized slaves and profited off slave trade during that time. The fact that some of our founders owned
slaves does not diminish the bold steps they took to, at first slow slavery in
America, and ultimately lead to its extinction. Abraham Lincoln used the founding fathers own
words to pursue emancipating slaves!
Arnn highlights the truth surrounding the fallacy that the
founding fathers did not mean “all men are created equal”. I only wish he would have gone into greater
detail about the history of slave trade in America and the founders’ views of
it, however he gives the reader enough information to formulate a solid opinion.
While his book is not
all inclusive to every argument that currently is being debated (who has time
to read the volumes of books that would entail) he provides the reader with a basis
for understanding our heritage and what is at stake if we allow our founding
documents to be distorted by the progressive message.
Not only does he lay the ground work for the reader to do
further research, he also provides many helpful documents such as the Declaration
of Independence, Constitution of the United States of America, many of the
Federalist Papers, an article by James Madison and other supportive notes.
I recommend this book for anyone weak on American history
and our founding government. It is a
great start to learning about our Nation: where we’ve been, where we are and
where we are headed!
This book was
provided complimentary by the publisher, Thomas Nelson, through BookSneeze for
the purpose of honest review.
If you like what you read on my blog, you'll enjoy my Monthly Newsletter! Sign up at the top right hand side of the screen!
No comments:
Post a Comment