It’s nearly the 4th
of July and an opportunity to write about several books having to do with
American history and politics:
SONGS OF AMERICA is a collaboration between Jon Meacham, the
Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer, and
Tim McGraw, Grammy Award–winning entertainer and country music artist. They have crafted a text that covers “patriotism,
protest, and the music that made a nation.” The selections cover all periods of
American history from The Revolutionary War era to present times. It is filled with images such as Howard Pyle’s
painting “The Nation Makers” and Bruce Springsteen singing “Born in the USA.” Unfortunately,
SONGS OF AMERICA does not have
any music – there is no accompanying CD, no links to online tracks and not even
any sheet music to help readers “hear” the songs. And, as Ken Emerson pointed
out in his Wall Street Journal review, lyrics are sometimes truncated due to
copyright restrictions. There is, however, an abundance of interesting facts
(e.g., about Susan B. Anthony registering to vote and participating in the 1872
election; about so-called forbidden verses of “This Land is Your Land;” and about
the history of “We Shall Overcome”). Tim McGraw’s comments are often
highlighted in separate boxes such as when he describes “My Country ‘Tis of
Thee” as a beacon: “What we say as a people – and what we sing as a people –
matters, for even if we fall short of the ideal, we’ve got to keep that ideal
in front of us, like a beacon through the darkness.” Contains over thirty pages of notes, an extensive bibliography, and a helpful index. We will have a copy of SONGS OF AMERICA on our shelves
soon, particularly since our AP US History students are reading Meacham’s The Soul of America.
OUR AMERICAN STORY is edited by Joshua A. Claybourn and subtitled “The Search for a Shared
National Narrative.” This collection of
essays includes contributions from writers like Yale Professor David W. Blight,
former Senator John C. Danforth, and representatives from think tanks such as Rand
Corporation and the Cato Institute. Each
is addressing Claybourn’s questions about “the unifying American story” so the
comments tend to be repetitive in places (e.g., about adherence to a creed versus
tribalism or references to the motto of e pluribus unum). I did especially
appreciate Claybourn’s introduction where he said: “in a civic society immersed
in echo chambers, one may be tempted to read only those contributions that
affirm existing views. Avoid that temptation; instead, absorb and engage each
approach.” This seems particularly
critical at a time when our headlines are full of news about the Nike decision to recall its sneaker with the Betsy Ross flag due to protests and the Arizona governor’s threat to pull incentives for a new plant in retaliation. Sadly,
this all tends to support Claybourn’s contention that “trust in institutions – government,
business, the media, and higher education – continues to erode. Cultural
warfare further splits our society, exposing fundamental differences about our
views of justice and human nature.”
In today’s
Wall Street
Journal William Galston asks, “
What Makes America One People?” He opines that “shared principles and language
are essential, but multiple cultures have always co-existed,” ideas that are
explored in the next two books which offer an interesting dialogue about democracy and its
future:
ILL WINDS
by Larry Diamond is a text largely
about the dangers of nationalism which Diamond has subtitled “Saving Democracy
from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency.” Diamond, a
senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, notes that “we
have seen 12 consecutive years of erosion in global levels of political rights
and civil liberties.” He cites numerous examples, from the Philippines to
Turkey to Hungary and prompts Kirkus to review this text as “a good
addition to the growing library on fighting authoritarianism.” Commenting
specifically on the United States, Diamond laments the “cynical politicians in
both parties, calcified systems that don’t deliver public goods and complacent
citizens who cannot bestir themselves to vote.” Outlining the ebb and flow of
global democratization, a short excerpt with statistics from this thought-provoking text (“the
problem is not just that democracies are declining; it is that autocracies are
becoming steadily more repressive and aggressive”) was recently published in The
Wall Street Journal.
DEMOCRACY MAY NOT
EXIST, BUT WE’LL MISS IT WHEN IT’S GONE is by Astra Taylor, an activist and award-winning author. Taylor challenges her readers to consider
this book as “an invitation to think about the word democracy from various
angles, looking back through history and reflecting on the philosophy and
practice of self-rule in hopes that a more contemplative view will shed useful
light on our present predicament.” As a result, the text is frankly not an easy
read, but it is an important one. She notes “while parts of the population have
retreated to nationalism and xenophobia, they are outnumbered (though not
out-funded or out-organized) by people who understand that acute inequality,
global migration, and climate change demand a visionary response, not a nostalgic
turn to the past.” Taylor’s basic argument is that “headlines tell us that
democracy is ‘in crisis,’ we don’t have a clear conception of what it is that
is at risk.” Similar ideas are explored in her documentary, What is Democracy?.
Taylor describes crafting DEMOCRACY MAY NOT EXIST, BUT WE’LL MISS
IT WHEN IT’S GONE so as to place “the insights of school children,
doctors, former prisoners, workers and refugees alongside the likes of Plato,
Locke, Rousseau, Marx, and DuBois partly to underscore people’s tremendous and
mostly untapped capacity for reflection.” As such, the text appears to be one that our Social
Studies classes (especially Civics, World History, AP US History and AP Euro) could
use to further explore and discuss the contradictions and tensions which she
outlines. As Publishers Weekly said
in its review, “This unusual and challenging work is worth the effort.”
This lengthy post was
inspired in part by Steven Levingston’s recent article in The Washington
Post profiling “40 new books that tell America’s Story.” It is a great list, full of variety, and
some of those titles, like First
or Upheaval,
have been reviewed previously on this blog. Many more are worth
investigating like the “civic sermons on love, responsibility, and democracy” in
Eric Liu’s Become America. Consider, too, Jill
Lepore’s This America: the case for the nation which received a starred
review from Kirkus. Looking for music suggestions, too? Try NPR’s American Anthem, songs that rouse, unite, celebrate and call to action. Celebrate
America’s birthday with a good book and some great music and be sure to register to vote!
SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST by Philip M. Napoli is an important contribution and
essential reference to the ongoing debate about the role and regulation of
social media platforms. Praised by dana boyd and others, this work focuses on
how social media platforms (like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram,
Snapchat, and WhatsApp) have “unexpectedly become key platforms for how
journalism (and disinformation posing as journalism) is produced, disseminated,
and consumed.” Napoli explores their “gatekeeping”
roles, noting, for example, “that Facebook went from accounting for 16 percent
of referrals to online news sites in 2013 to more than 40 percent in 2017” although
he also later questions whether we have seen the peak. Napoli provides
historical context, too, in that he contrasts the “unprecedented level of regulatory
oversight” for radio broadcasting technology (e.g., federal licensing,
indecency rules, and public affairs programming requirements) with less
dramatic changes for other technologies like cable and the “pinballing …
between the imposition and elimination of net neutrality regulations.” This
work is written by an academic and while therefore somewhat wordy and
jargon-laden, it should be viewed by more than policy wonks and be of concern to
all. Napoli is writing “about a problem related to the effective functioning of
the democratic process, …the very nature of the problem undermines the means
for developing and adopting solutions.” Napoli is a Duke University Professor and
thorough researcher; roughly a third of SOCIAL
MEDIA AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST contains extensive source notes
and additional commentary.
