We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future

by Matthew Spalding

Overview

The Essential Guide to Rolling Back the Progressive Assault and Putting America Back on Course!

Many Americans are concerned, frightened, angry. The country, it seems, is on the wrong track. But what is the right course for America? Knowing what we stand against is not the same as knowing what we stand for. Just in time, Matthew Spalding provides the plan for translating angst into proper action in this bestselling book. We Still Hold These Truths offers a bracing analysis of how and why we have lost our bearings as a nation and lays out the strategy to rescue our future from arbitrary and unlimited government.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781935191926
Publisher:	Skyhorse Publishing
Publication date:	10/15/2010
Edition description:	2nd Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

Matthew Spalding is the director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation. An expert on political history, constitutionalism, and religious liberty in America, he is the executive editor of the bestselling book The Heritage Guide to the Constitution and the author or editor of three other works. Spalding, who holds a Ph.D. in government from the Claremont Graduate School, lives with his family in northern Virginia.

Table of Contents

Foreword William J. Bennett xi

Introduction: Curiosities in Glass Cases 1

1 A New Nation, Conceived in Liberty: The Roots of American Freedom 7

2 We Hold These Truths: Equality, Natural Rights, and the Consent of the Governed 29

3 Of Faith and Reason: The Establishment of Religious Freedom 51

4 The Fire of Opportunity: Private Property and the Spirit of Enterprise 67

5 Rule of Law: The Great Foundation of Our Constitution 81

6 Constitutionalism in Principle: The Architecture of Limited Government 99

7 Constitutionalism in Practice: The Workings of Ordered Liberty 117

8 The Virtues of Self-Government: Building Community, Forming Character, and Making Citizens 135

9 The Command of Our Fortunes: Sovereign Independence and America's Role in the World 161

10 A New Republic: The Progressive Assault on the Founders' Principles 187

11 American Renewal: The Case for Reclaiming Our Future 215

Bibliographic Essay and Organizational Resources 241

Acknowledgments 253

Index 255

Editorial Reviews

The single best introduction to the political thought of the American Founding . . . [Spalding] has reclaimed the best of the American political tradition for all Americans.” —Weekly Standard

“Splendid, strongly written . . . [There is] no better starting point for our discussion than Mr. Spalding’s eloquent explication and defense of our nation’s first and Founding principles.” —Washington Times

“These first principles are the indispensable guides policy makers need now.” —Paul Ryan, U.S. Congress

“This is vital armament in the battle for constitutional restoration.” —Jonah Goldberg, editor at large, National Review Online

“Invigorating . . . [An] excellent primer in American common sense.” —Claremont Review of Books

From the Publisher