My Amazon Review of Thomas Ricks' "First Principles:............"

 

The Noblest Romans of America

 

Military affairs writer Thomas Ricks discusses how Greco-Roman classical thought underpinned the political philosophy of our first four presidents.  College educated Adams, Jefferson and Madison understood Latin and Greek and to them the voices of Cato, Cicero and Cincinnatus were not ancient history, but current in their thoughts. Though not college educated, Washington absorbed the culture by osmosis and perhaps he was the noblest Roman of them all. For it was he, just like Cincinnatus who fought the war and then returned to his farm.

 

For all of them the models for a republic came from Greece and Rome. To be sure both were republics of the elite and both rested on the work of slaves, which is pretty much how we ended up in 1789. Nevertheless, the watchword for both was “virtue,” meaning civic virtue by placing the public good over private interest. This is a far cry from Donald Trump’s Washington, and it was, in fact, Trump’s election that prompted Ricks to write this book.

 

The ideas of the ancient world were tempered by the writings of Montesquieu (“Spirit of Laws” 1748) and the Scottish enlightenment writings of David Hume and Adam Smith. It was Madison’s genius to harness private interests in the service of classical virtue in writing the constitution.

 

Ricks has suggestions as to our world of today can utilize the thoughts of the classics. He notes that the Founders would be shocked as to the role money plays in our politics thereby creating an all-powerful oligarchy. That is true, but I would I argue that the Founders would also be shocked by the size and scope of the federal government. With the stakes so high, it is only natural that money has flooded into our politics.

 

Ricks has given us another view into the thoughts of our founder. Although a bit long-winded in spots his book is well worth the read.

For the full Amazon URL see: The Noblest Romans of America (amazon.com)

My Amazon Review of David Rubinstein's "The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians"

History Comes Alive

Private equity mogul and patriotic philanthropist David Rubinstein truly loves the history of our country and has lovingly written up a series of interviews/conversations with America’s great historians. The interviews took place at the Library of Congress with representatives and senators present where he discussed the lives of such great Americans as George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King and Richard Nixon. The historians he interviewed included Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ron Chernow, Walter Isaacson and Bob Woodward among others. He also interviews Chief Justice John Roberts on the Supreme Court.

We get into the lives of the great personages who made our country. He asks the historians about their great strengths and foibles. It all comes across as a great series of conversations. There is much to learn here. The conversations really flow and the book is very hard to put down in the middle of any of the interviews.

I got sense as to how good David Rubinstein is when he interviewed Fed Chairman Jay Powell that was shown on CNBC.  Rubinstein knows his subject matter and his subjects. Given that most high school and college students don’t know history, I would highly recommend that this book be made required reading in every high school in America!

The full amazon URL appears at: https://www.amazon.com/review/RAHM7T2XGLKFJ/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv