George Will's column today concerns David McCullough's recently published, 1776, a military history of the American Revolution. McCullough has enormous appreciation for what the revolution's success meant for America and the world. Will calls McCullough's book a birthday card "to his country on this Independence Day"
Here's part of what Will says:
Will's columnm also a birthday card to the nation, is here.Solid, unpretentious narrative history like "1776" satisfies the healthy human thirst for a ripping good story. McCullough says E.M. Forster, the novelist, efficiently defined a story: If you are told that the king died and then the queen died, that is a sequence of events. If you are told that the king died and then the queen died of grief, that is a story that elicits empathy.
McCullough's two themes in "1776" are that things could have turned out very differently, and that individuals of character can change the destinies of nations. There is a thirst for both themes in this country, which is in a less-than-festive frame of mind on this birthday. It is, therefore, serendipitous that "1776," with 1.35 million copies already in print, sits atop The New York Times best-seller list on Independence Day
1 comments:
Wow... I just found your blog via the open trackback post at The Mudville Gazette (where I had also trackbacked a post - one written by a guest blogger). That entry was from my birthday - one week ago.
I was just in the process of writing a blog entry, including some book suggestions (so that more people could use my Associate account to purchase books). I was thinking about the bestseller lists, and how it would be a good idea to provide links to those books, since they are the ones that are the most popular currently. 1776 was one of those books that I had seen on - perhaps the New York Times Bestseller List? - I think that I may have seen George Will's column on this book... After seeing this entry of yours, I will definitely have to include that new book in my blog entry. Thank you for providing this information; I will be sure to link back to here, in that post.
George Will is an excellent columnist. The entry that I found your blog from (via that birthday Mudville Gazette post), was on William F. Buckley. I have had mixed feeling about Buckley; I have not been pleased by some of the things that some conservatives and libertarians have asserted about him (this is a very-much debated, and complex issue)... But I like the principled stances that he has taken in several of the columns of his that I have read.
At last summer's National Conservative Student Conference, Rich Lowry began his dinner-time address by praising the legacy of William F. Buckley. In the Q-and-A session, however, one of my guest bloggers [see here] asked him about his view of Mr. Buckley's retrospective opposition to the Iraq war. That may be the only time ever that Lowry has responded to that question (a later article that I saw stated that he had refused to comment; so this was a key opportunity, and I'm glad that someone took advantage of it...).
Lowry ended up saying that he disagreed with William F. Buckley on this issue.
In addition to Mr. Buckley, I suspect that Mr. Will also shares this position. (That's one of the reasons why I've been liking him more off late.)
As for Mr. Buckley, you are correct to emphasize how big of an impact that he has had on the conservative movement. In posting my first comment at the Claremont Institute's "Local Liberty" blog (actually, my 2nd comment at that entry), I included a link to this article on young conservatives, and the impact that Mr. Buckley has had on our movement. I noted there a divide that has arisen within the conservative movement, and I think that I agree with my aforementioned guest blogger that the results of this intra-movemental debate could be what determines the future of our nation... Or at least, it will likely be one of the key determining factors.
Sorry if this comment is too long... It's just that your blog entries (which I just came across) seem to hit upon several of the key issues that I've been thinking and writing about in recent times. One more thing - I've also been thinking about the state of North Carolina... that guest blogger is from there, and I have been in recent contact with Nathan Tabor, the young conservative writer who was known in the last election as "the young Jesse Helms." In that same congressional race, one of the other candidates was known as the African-American "Jesse Helms." The winner of that Republican primary, and of the general election race, however, was Virginia Foxx. I think that all three of those candidates believe in traditional conservative values - such as opposing illegal immigration, and opposing measures like "CAFTA" that surrender our nation's sovereignty.
Are you in that same congressional district? Or perhaps you are in one of the other ones... I am very appreciative of the recent work of conservative congressman Howard Coble (R-NC) and Walter Jones (R-NC).
There were a number of cool Tar Heel state students at that above-mentioned National Conservative Student Conference, last summer. And I mentioned, awhile back how I've noticed that your state also has many bloggers.
How did NC become so good?
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