A Patriot's History of the Modern World Part I

   "A Patriot's History of the Modern World," is a sequel to the NY Times best-selling Patriot's History of the United States. The earlier volume covered the time period from Columbus to the War on Terror, while the current volume confines itself from the Spanish-American War of 1898 to the end of the Second World War in 1945. The principal author, Larry Schweikart, a rare example of a conservative university history professor, details the struggle between "Progressives," those who want ever increasing government control of all aspects of society ostensibly for the common good, and "constitutionalists," who desire a limited government. and individual responsibility. Schweikart and his co-author Dave Dougherty also examine four pillars of American exceptionalism which they state do not exist in any other country of the world.
    These pillars are a heritage of common law, a Christian and predominantly Protestant religious tradition; a free market economy, and property rights, especially land rights. More explicitly common law comes from the people upward in contrast to civil law, which flows downward from a monarch or comparable authority. Protestant Christianity teaches individual relationship with God, and thus the importance of each person studying the Bible for himself which leads to a reliance on morality rather than coercion to obey laws and harmonize with others. American capitalism relied on individual entrepreneurs rather than state run industry. Property rights promoted self reliance. Tragically all of these pillars have been repeatedly attacked and diminished. Only a diluted semblance remains.
     In actuality much of the book centers around events in Europe particularly the two World Wars, and the example of Calvin Coolidge"s administration, who did more to push back the growth of government than any other of the past hundred plus years, is barely mentioned. The authors should have devoted more time to explicit evidence of the importance of the four pillars rather than reciting events in other countries.  Nonetheless they provide a seldom written perspective that aids to counter the prevailing leftist revisionism and castigating of the US as the source of all the problems in the world.