The Patriot's Handbook: A Citizenship Primer for a New Generation of Americans by George Grant

The Patriot's Handbook: 

A Citizenship Primer for a New Generation of Americans

George Grant

Published 1996

American non-fiction

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I remember when I bought this book many years ago with the purpose of becoming more enlightened about America. I began reading, but stopped and put it away for many years. Now that I am intent on reading all the books on my shelves, it was time to get it done. So here it is.

The Patriot's Handbook is one of two American-themed books that I read side-by-side. This one is broken up into four chronological themes, supported by documents, poems, letters, Supreme Court decisions, presidential addresses, songs, short stories, and more. Most of these can be found online somewhere, but it is convenient to have them in one book. 

My favorites were Liberty or Death by Patrick Henry, Paul Revere's Ride by Longfellow, Washington's Inaugural and Farewell Addresses, and, my absolute best choice, The Right to Rebel by Samuel West, which was a sermon given to the Council and House of Representatives in 1776. Between Common Sense and this sermon, I think West gave a similarly persuasive rationalization for independence from Britain.  

Other favs were League of Nations Speech by Henry Cabot Lodge and Letter from the Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.  Personally, I think Grant should have included King's I Have a Dream Speech in addition to this letter.

Also included: The U.S. Constitution, The Bill of Rights, a couple of The Federalists essays, biographies on Founding Fathers and forgotten Presidents, Amendments to the Constitution, The National Anthem, Fathers of the future, and more. 

As per the four chapters, the following are only SOME of the other documents, songs, poems, letters, and speeches found in The Patriot's Handbook.

Part I: City on a Hill

 

Apologia by Christopher Columbus

The Mayflower Compact

Essays to Do Good by Cotton Mather

Sir Humphrey Gilbert by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Part II: An Experiment in Liberty

 

The Method of Grace by George Whitefield

The Divine Source of Liberty by Samuel Adams

Liberty Tree by Thomas Paine

Nathan Hale by Francis Miles Finch

The Bunker Hill Oration by Daniel Webster

Part III: Manifest Destiny

 

The Defense of the Alamo by Joaquin Miller

The Slavery Question by John C. Calhoun

A House Divided by Abraham Lincoln

The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln

The Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln

O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman

Part IV: The American Dream

 

Seneca Falls Declaration by Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Atlanta Exposition Address by Booker T. Washington

The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus

Pear Harbor Address by FDR

Nobel Prize Acceptance by William Faulkner

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka by Earl Warren

Roe v. Wade by Harry Blackmun

Inaugural Address by Ronald Reagan

The Message fo Freedom by Alan Keyes

* * *

Once I started digging into my nation's history (long before this book), I began to develop a clearer appreciation for the courage, ingenuity, and sacrifice of those Americans (including many immigrants) from the past, and I learned to be grateful for my country. It is imperative to see all of it, even the unpleasant and unjust; but examine your nation's past and draw from it what is good and right, and continue building upon it. 

Learn your nation's history via its historical documents, essays, speeches, letters, folksong and lore, poems, and biographies of influential voices. It helps to read with an open heart and mind, willing to learn, to ask questions, and challenge your perspective. 

If you live disconnected from and ignorant of the past, you live vulnerably in the present. In America, an arrogant, presumptuous, and irresponsible trend seeks to discard the past to start over disastrous ideas because some are dissatisfied with an imperfect past. In part, this is because they lack an understanding of human nature and sin, but I digress.

The times in which people lived before us is not our own time. Instead, we must ask if we are doing any better with what is before us now rather than lay blame for every human condition on the dead who can do nothing more for the future.