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Thirteen American Arguments: Enduring Debates That Define and Inspire Our Country by Howard Fineman |
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UNITED STATES_POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Newsweek’sHoward Fineman is one of our best-known and most trusted political journalists. Mixing vivid scenes and figures from the campaign trail with forays into four hundred years of American history, Fineman shows that every debate, from our nation’s founding to the present day, is rooted in one of thirteen arguments that–thankfully–defy resolution. It is the very process of never-ending argument, Fineman explains, that defines us, inspires us, and keeps us free. At a time when most public disagreement seems shrill and meaningless, Fineman makes a cogent case for nurturing the real American dialogue. Shouting is not arguing, Fineman notes, but often hot-button topics, media “cross-fires,” and blogs reflect the deepest currents in American life. In an enlightening book that cuts through the din and makes sense of the headlines, Fineman captures the essential issues that have always compelled healthy and heated debate–and must continue to do so in order for us to prosper in the twenty-first century. The Thirteen American Arguments run the gamut, from defining our very identities to addressing how we should work, pray, and love, including: •Who Is a Person?The Constitution says “everyone,” but the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement expanded the definition. What does the future hold for embryonic stem cells and “unlawful enemy combatants”? •Who Is an American?From the “red scares” of World War I and the Cold War to George Allen’s “macaca” slur, our ideas on who can cross our borders continue to spark controversy. •The Role of FaithThere has always been impassioned back-and-forth about religious beliefs in public life, from Jefferson’s “wall of separation” to the Terri Schiavo case. •What Can We Know and Say?Wars have forever challenged the First Amendment: John Adams signed the Sedition Act and Woodrow Wilson the Espionage Act before George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act. •Local vs. FederalThe frontiers of Kentucky and Tennessee fought with the powers “back east” to decide their destinies, mirroring today’s Red vs. Blue cultural battles. Whether it’s the environment, international trade, interpreting law, Congress vs. the president, or reformers vs. elites, these are the issues that galvanized the Founding Fathers and should still inspire our leaders, thinkers, and citizens. If we cease to argue about these things, we cease to be. “Argument is strength, not weakness,” says Fineman. “As long as we argue, there is hope, and as long as there is hope, we will argue.” Howard Fineman is one of our best-known and most trusted political journalists. Mixing vivid scenes and figures from the campaign trail with forays into four hundred years of American history, Fineman shows that every debate, from our nation’s founding to the present day, is rooted in one of thirteen arguments that–thankfully–defy resolution. It is the very process of never-ending argument, Fineman explains, that defines us, inspires us, and keeps us free. At a time when most public disagreement seems shrill and meaningless, Fineman makes a cogent case for nurturing the real American dialogue. Shouting is not arguing, Fineman notes, but often hot-button topics, media “cross-fires,” and blogs reflect the deepest currents in American life. In an enlightening book that cuts through the din and makes sense of the headlines, Fineman captures the essential issues that have always compelled healthy and heated debate–and must continue to do so in order for us to prosper in the twenty-first century.The Thirteen American Argumentsrun the gamut, from issues of individual identity to our country’s role in the world, including: • Who is a Person?The Declaration of Independence says “everyone,” but it took a Civil War and the Civil Rights and other movements to make that a reality. Presently, what about human embryos and “unlawful enemy combatants?” • Who is an American?Only a nation of immigrants could argue so much about who should become one. There is currently added urgency when terrorists are at large in the world and twelve million “undocumented” aliens are in the country. • The Role of Faith.No country is more legally secular yet more avowedly prayerful. From Thomas Jefferson to Terri Schiavo, we can never quite decide where God fits in government. • Presidential Power.In a democracy, leadership is all the more difficult — and, paradoxically, all the more essential. From George Washington to George W. Bush, we have always asked: How much power should a president have? • America in the World.Uniquely, we perpetually ask ourselves whether we have a moral obligation to change the world — or, alternatively, whether we must try to change it to survive in it. Whether it’s the environment, international trade, interpreting law, Congress vs. the president, or reformers vs. elites, these are the issues that galvanized the Founding Fathers and should still inspire our leaders, thinkers, and citizens. If we cease to argue about these things, we cease to be. “Argument is strength, not weakness,” says Fineman. “As long as we argue, there is hope, and as long as there is hope, we will argue.” Advance praise forThe Thirteen American Arguments “A spectacular feat, a profound book about America that moves with ease from history to recent events. A talented storyteller, Howard Fineman provides a human face to each of the core political arguments that have alternately separated, strengthened, and sustained us from our founding to the present day.” –Doris Kearns Goodwin, author ofTeam of Rivals “With a marvelous command of the past and a keen grasp of the present, Howard Fineman expertly details one of the great truths about our country: that we are a nation built on arguments, and our capacity to summon what Lincoln called ‘the better angels of our nature’ lies in undertaking those debates with civility and mutual respect. Few people understand politics as well as Fineman does, and this work is an indispensable guide not only to the battles of the moment, but to the wars that will go on long after this news cycle is long forgotten.&am One Who Is a Person? ? The sky was cloudless that sunny morning in Springfield, the air was so brutally cold it felt almost viscous—so cold you could barely think. As far as Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois was concerned, the temperature did not matter. He was oblivious to it in his elegant wool overcoat. Springfield, capital of Illinois, was where he wanted to be—needed to be—on that frigid February 11, 2007. It was there, he knew, that he had begun his political career as a state legislator only a decade earlier. It was there, he knew, that another Illinois legislator, Abraham Lincoln, had asked a question that ultimately led to the deadliest, most profound argument in American history: Is everyone, including a black man, a person? And it was there, in Springfield, that? Obama hoped to begin a quest that would answer the question empathically by making him the first African American to win the White House. In a personal sense, Obama’s trip to Springfield was a political homecoming. A mixed-race son of Kenya and Kansas, he had lived in many places—Hawaii, Indonesia, Los Angeles, New York City, and Cambridge—before finally finding love and identity on the South Side of Chicago in the security and striving of its fabled black community. His wife, Michelle Robinson, was a Princeton-educated pride of the neighborhood and, like Obama, a graduate of the Harvard School. He settled down to build the foundation of a political career as a community organizer, civil rights lawyer, and law professor. In 1996, he was elected to the state senate from the South Side, and quickly made a name for himself in Springfield. Like Lincoln, he was a tall, gangly fellow with a wry sense of humor and a knack for speeches, deals, and poker. But was he like Lincoln in other ways? Did he in fact need to be? Now, after spending a mere year in the U.S. Senate, Obama was back in Springfield with a message of national unity. He wanted to make racial history, but this time, paradoxically, by ending our national preoccupation with it once and for all. The story of Springfield gave reason for both hope and caution. In Springfield, Lincoln has transformed himself from any easygoing shopkeeper into an inspiring politician. As a state legislator, he had become a champion of a cause—The Cause—of ending a system of slavery that, at its root, denied the basic, elemental humanity of the people it enslaved. With increasing sophistication and determination, he argued that slavery, as entrenched and familiar as it was, violated the central idea upon which this country had been founded: that all souls—not just white male citizens of the United States of America—were entitled to personhood, dignity, and the respect of their fellow men. This is our first and most fundamental American Argument: Who, in our constitutional scheme, is a “person?” Lincoln won the cause and the war that flowed from it, but not necessarily the hearts of the country. Springfield’s story was sometimes as ugly as it was uplifting. Forty-three years after Lincoln’s death it was the scene of a shocking, murderous race riot. In the fall of 1908, a black man accused of having raped a white woman was spirited out of town by local police worried for his safety. News of his transfer spread to an angry crowd, which metastasized into a mob that rampaged through the city. The crowds overwhelmed the police; the governor sent in the Guard to restore order. At least four blacks died. This Springfield story alarmed the country: a race riot in Lincoln’s hometown in the historically antislavery state of Illinois. The lesson was clear. While civil rights for blacks existed in theory, it did not exist in fact. A few months later, spurred by the Springfield riot, a new civil rights group held its first full organizational meeting. The National Associ Fineman presents a brilliant new organizing principle to clarify the political issues that dominate American life. According to the author, there have been 13 main clashes of ideas--and every major debate can be traced back to one of these frameworks. |
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