The 10 Big Lies About America: Combating Destructive Distortions About Our Nation

Recently, I was sitting in a pub in Oxford with a friend from India. He seems to find me, an American who did not share in the general "euphoria" in the UK over Obama's election, a rather exotic creature. But he made an interesting suggestion: why not look at the election of Obama, even if you don't welcome it, as a chance to reinvent what it means to be an American Christian, in a way that will connect more deeply with the world at large?His challenge was still in the back of my mind when I read this book.The years of American hegemony are now ending, and China and India will soon take positions on the world stage in some proportion to their vast populations. Witnessing how broadly many of the "lies" Medved describes are believed outside the US, I'd love to give Chinese and Indian friends a book like this and say: "See what America has been, at its best, for the world. As your power grows, try to emulate what you can of our successes, or do us one better."Most of Medved's arguments are solid. He cites leading experts as well as opponents to make his case, and I think generally gets his facts right. (Notice that critics so far generally depend on vague complaints, unable it seems to point to specific errors.) Among other things, he argues that: America has seldom been as nasty to the Indians as is often claimed. The Founding Fathers were less secularist than supposed. (I wish he'd given both sides here, though -- as Steven Waldmon does in Founding Faith.) Big Business does help the country. America has seldom been truly imperialist, and has done the world a lot of good. And morality rises and falls; "a dizzying roller coaster of steep ups and downs, zigzags, climbs and reverses, and even loop-the-loops."Medved carefully limits his claims, then backs them up with copious relevant facts. Many of his facts and anecdotes are quite interesting -- McKinley's prayer for the Phillipines, the story of how "America the Beautiful" was written, the size of houses in the 1950s compared to our "supersized" homes of today.In the end, though, Medved is a bit too triumphalist to wish his book into the hands of Indian or Chinese friends. Sometimes he simply protests too much. Granted there was no official American policy of genocide. Granted that most Indians deaths came from disease, that others married out rather than being murdered, even that Indian cultures were "savage" in some sense. Still, the fact is, we wound up with the land (just as China ended up with Tibet, and India with Nagaland), and they wound up with treaties for half of almost extinct salmon runs. Is self-justification really the right tone to take? Having heard the same tone, and some of the same arguments, from Chinese about Tibet, I feel a bit uncomfortable with them. I would also have liked to have seen a more positive statement from Medved on the role native peoples were to play in America, culturally as well as in terms of territory.To some extent, Medved's "American exceptionalism" cuts us off from others -- from our European roots, from human tradition as a whole. (Sociologist Rodney Stark gives a much more nuanced reading of what went into American success -- most of which is not unique to America.)I believe America has done a great deal of good in the world. But pride comes before a fall, for countries as well as individuals. One thing that typifies nations at their greatest periods of growth -- Japan in the late 19th Century, China during the Tang and today, America at the revolution -- is a combination of confidence, and openness to outside ideas.The challenge for conservatives, and for Christians, is to find a way of affirming our ideals, to seek reform on the model of Burke, Jefferson, Reagan, or St Paul, yet to do so in a way that helps us develop a fuller appreciate of the God-given beauties and truths in other traditions as well. Medved does seem to appreciate good in other cultures to some extent, but is unable to articulate his patriotism, and how it relates to the riches humanity shares in common, in what I found to be a fully satisfying manner. This is a generally excellent book, full of useful information, and an important answer to unfair attacks on the American heritage; but infused with a less than fully satisfying philosophy of patriotism. Maybe Medved should read G. K. Chesterton.author, The Truth Behind the New Atheism

NO one clarifies the TRUTH quite like Mr. Medved.In fact, one of the most entertaining facets of his radio show is when he debates the various irate leftos who call in to "challenge" his asseertions or statements on the air. As usual, Medved confronts these histrionic imbeciles with rationality and facts, making them look like the fools they truly are. However, most of these people are so unspeakably stupid, that they are completely oblivious to any of this. Thats why, in the end, it is ultimately pointless, to a certain extant, to argue with a leftist: the ACTUAL FACTS mean nothing to them. Their justification lies entirely in the level of emotion that they feel in regard to the issue. They believe what they believe, because they very desperately WANT to believe it.So in this excellent book, Mr. medved refutes the ten most prominent pieces of anti-American propaganda that so many gullible people unquestioningly believe. For the last fifty years, we have seen the leftist element debasing and maligning not only the entire sphere of Western culture, but America specifically.The fact is, some negative things have occurred in our history. EVERY nation, culture, civilization, or ethnicity that ever existed has a considerable list of crimes, atrocities, or injustices in its past. America is no different in that regard.However, there is one very significant difference: America has ALWAYS openly confronted its faults, from day one. Sometimes it has taken years or decades to resolve certain injustices, but in the end, ...we DID resolve the problem....Most nations in the world have some rather glaring disparities and injustices that are on-going for several centuries...In fact, some of these cultures revel in the oppression and exploitation they have inflicted on their rivals. Its a great source of ethnic pride, in many cases.The leftist in America continues to smear feces on the names of authentically great men from our past.These are men whose impact on American society benefits us directly, even today, over two centuries later in many cases.But these great personalities were still human, ...with all the same faults, failings, and hypocrisies that EVERY ONE OF US has.To the lefto, this is absolutely abominable! They demand profound PERFECTION in anyone placed in such high regard, regardless of their ACTUAL accomplishments.Now, in the ignorance of my early youth, there was a time that I REALLY wanted to believe in leftist ideology. I listened to the all the great adulation heaped upon various leftist radicals and other affiliated personalities, ...and I wanted to know more. Being a very frequent visitor to the library, I read their biographies. It turns out, that EVERY ONE of these exalted leftists were absolutely revolting people, with ENORMOUS lapses of character. Not one of them possessed even a fraction of a fraction of the great honor and glory that they are still lauded with. In the end, all of them are people who really contributed NOTHING.

I am interested in History and we don't often get this kind of writing