Genre: Nonfiction—Politics
Completed: 5 January 2014
Summary & Review:
Constitutional scholar W. Cleon Skousen presents twenty-eight principles that formed the basis for the founding of the United States and the writing of the Constitution. By examining what the Founders believed and the philosophical foundation behind what they wrote and how the formed the government, Skousen pointed out how far we have strayed from the republican form of limited government that was originally intended. The book cites writings and quotes from Founders such as John Adams and James Madison as well as their ideological touchstones such as John Locke and Montesquieu to illustrate the twenty-eight principles. These principles include avoiding the burden of debt and free-market economics produce the highest level of prosperity.
Having read quite a bit of the political philosophy of the Founders and other political geniuses such as Locke and Paine, there weren't too many new insights in this book. However, I can see the value of this book nonetheless. It simply and clearly presented core American principles in a way that those who are not very familiar with them would easily understand. Skousen did a good job of presenting these ideas so that they show how logical and true they really are, and how these ideas led to miraculous prosperity and freedom previously unknown in the history of the world. 'Murica rules!
Rating: 6.5
65%? That's not a very positive review. Admittedly, I started to read this book and got distracted probably about 3 years ago, but I thought it was better than 65% (assuming a 10-point scale).
ReplyDeleteWell, the rating is just for my personal experience of reading the book, i.e. how much I enjoyed it or learned from it, etc. The rating was not a reflection on the simple quality of the book which was well written and researched. I gave it a slightly lower rating because not much of the information was new to me since I've read a lot in this vein.
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