The premise of these ten biographical essays is to concentrate on individuals who brought "fundamental Americanism", values at a time in which our leaders prefer polarizing the people to consolidate power via the money mechanism needed for reelections. Readers may disagree on the choices (no presidents), which is part of the fun of this tome. For instance, this reviewer expected Lincoln as the influence of changing from state-centric to national-conscience, but instead he failed to make the cut and some that were selected I never heard of before. Historical buffs will enjoy reading about values of this country from the seventeenth century: John Winthrop; eighteenth century: Thomas Paine and Pierre Eugene Du Simitiere; nineteenth century: Ralph Waldo Emerson, John L. O'Sullivan, and Henry George; twentieth century: Jane Addams, Israel Zangwill, Carter G. Woodson, and George C. Marshall. Written somewhat like the required reading of an American History 101 course, Neil Baldwin presents a fascinating concept supported by his chosen ones who he argues lived the American ideal of individual freedom and rights.
Harriet Klausner
This book reminds me of the pretentious, mind-numbing courses on intellectual history I suffered through in college. Clearly, it was prepared with a great deal of thought and scholarship, but the sum is not a fraction of its parts.
While I'll give the author credit for coming up with an interesting premise and giving credit to some lesser-known thinkers/doers, I can't call this book an enjoyable or illuminating read. It's so choppy and written so strangely that long sections are incomprehensible. Most inexcusable is the author's decision to put quote marks around every possible phrase, as if to prove he read all the original texts and related texts he references. There are literally scores of examples in which he puts quotes around one or two words -- and not important words, either -- which destroy the flow of the book. Furthermore, because he's doing short sketches that include a person's biography and historical context, he scants attention to the thing he purported to write about: their intellectual contribution to America.
