Book Reviews

American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic
by Joseph Ellis

A Year with C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works

From the August 2008 Philogian

There are historians who write for academic classrooms and then there are historians who write for ordinary people like you and me.  Joseph Ellis is one of the latter.  In previous Philogian articles I have shared reviews of his Pulitzer Prize winning book, Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, highlighting the lives of those men who influenced the founding of our country, and his fascinating study into the life of George Washington titled, His Excellency: George Washington (both reviewed in August 2005).

Allow me to introduce you to his most recent work.  It is titled, American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic, published by Alfred Knopf in 2007.  In recent years attention has been focused upon the stories surrounding the founding of our great nation.  Perhaps it began in 1976 with our nation’s bicentennial celebrations.  Perhaps the events of 9-11 caused us to want to look back upon the roots of a nation that now was the focus of some of the world’s hatred.  But, whatever the reasons, I am thankful that there is an new-found enthusiasm about those initial years of our nation. 

If I were to invite you to make a list of the founding fathers – or brothers as Ellis calls them – you would not hesitate to name: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.  When you think about it, you just named the first four presidents of the United States.  At times it is easy for us to look back upon such individuals and view them as giants.  I am reminded of the 1850s quote from Charles Francis Adams, grandson of John Adams, We are beginning to forget that the patriots of former days were men like ourselves…and we are almost irresistibly led to ascribe to them in our imaginations certain gigantic proportions and superhuman qualities without reflecting that this at once robs their character of consistency and their virtues of all merit (page 7).

There is a sense of honesty on the part of the author as he takes us back to those incredible days.  We witness the strengths of resolve on the part of these leaders, but also observe chinks in their armor.  We witness one of the dirtiest political campaigns ever recorded in our history – no, it was not in 2000 between George W Bush and Al Gore – between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in 1800.  We witness the struggle by George Washington to convince people of the need for a strong federal government, this after a war had been fought against such a governmental type.  And we witness the backroom bargaining that led to one of the greatest moments in our nation’s history – the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. 

Ellis writes in a style that keeps our interest peaking.  He makes his characters come alive.  He draws back the curtains that separate us from the past and affords us the occasion to become part of the drama.  As we read we will soon realize that ours is not the first generation to wrestle with the difficulties of political uncertainty.  Perhaps it is time that we rediscover the principles used by the first generation of Americans that brought unity from the jaws of disunity.  Perhaps…just perhaps…we might discover what it means to be an American.

You know that I am an avid reader of the works of C. S. Lewis.  I have feasted on many of his volumes and found both encouragement to my heart and a challenge to my faith.  I have often wished that someone would compile some of those golden nuggets from his works.  Well someone has.  Patricia Klein has collected 366 gems and published them in a volume entitled, A Year with C. S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works, published in 2003 by HarperSanFrancisco.  Allow me to share just a few nuggets with you:
The more we get what we now call ‘ourselves’ out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become.

In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble.

To enter heaven is to become more human than you ever succeeded in being on earth; to enter hell, is to be banished from humanity.

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.  Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’; aim at earth and you will get neither.

But the question is not what we intended ourselves to be, but what He intended us to be when He made us.  He is the inventor, we are only the machine.  He is the painter, we are only the picture. … We may be content to remain what we call ‘ordinary people’: but He is determined to carry out a quite different plan.  To shrink back from that plan is not humility: it is laziness and cowardice. To submit to it is not conceit or megalomania; it is obedience.

Friends, after my morning time in the Word and a reading from Lewis, I find that my heart and mind are both encouraged and challenged.  I have food upon which my soul can find nourishment during the day.

Summer days still linger and there are still opportunities for refreshment for the mind and heart as you sit out on the deck.  Or you can begin to plan your reading schedule for those long winter months that will soon be upon us.  When you find a book you find a friend!

 

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