Somehow it seems fitting to be looking at two new books that
discuss American values and history on this Memorial Day holiday. Both are fairly
scholarly in tone and while they focus on past events, their authors’ intent is
to instruct, inform and to draw lessons for today.
The Jefferson
Rule by David Sehat, an Associate Professor of History at Georgia State
University, spans American history and argues that rather than exploiting and blithely
quoting the Founders, our contemporary politicians should be engaging in more
meaningful evaluation of policy. In an accessible way, he describes the partisanship
of the Founders -- actually not a very coherent group and certainly not infallible.
Sehat deplores over-reliance on their
writings and cites examples from the Civil War, New Deal, Reagan Revolution and
Obama presidency. At one point, Sehat quotes Tony Judt: “The historian’s task
is to tell what is almost always an uncomfortable story and [to] explain why
the discomfort is part of the truth we need to live well…”
Published by Simon & Schuster, The Jefferson Rule
received starred reviews from Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews and has a short video intro here. Although some students may not yet have enough background to fully appreciate
Sehat’s many historical references, this title is worth considering as a required
summer read for AP US History.
JFK and LBJ: The
Last Two Great Presidents is written by Godfrey Hodgson, a British journalist
who spent years as a White House correspondent and has authored numerous books
about American politics. In this publication from Yale University Press, Hodgson
argues that JFK’s reputation has been inflated and that Johnson’s reputation
has been downplayed and as I read, I immediately thought of applying a similar
argument to the contrast in how Americans tend to view Jefferson and Hamilton. Although biased in his view, Hodgson nevertheless
provides many details and close to 30 pages of footnotes while juxtaposing the strong
personalities and many accomplishments of these two twentieth-century Presidents.
Both of these titles encourage us to actively engage with
history, looking through additional perspectives and reflecting this Memorial Day
on the proverb: He who tells the story rules the world.
