The Genius of America, by Eric Lane and Michael Orestes

Review by W. J. Rayment / ConservativeBookstore -- No one ever calls America a nation anymore. It is as if we have forgotten that we are a people, not just a country. We have a culture, a philosophy, national dishes, modes of thinking, we are even stereotyped by other nations rather the way we do the French or the Russians. As Paul Johnson noted in his History of the United States, we were founded on two driving, seemingly divergent principles, as both a city on a hill and a place where a young fellow on the make could create a fortune. The United States brought together these two strains into one powerful idea and harnessed it as well as a myriad other great ideas by laying upon it a framework of governance that we call the Constitution. But modernist cosmopolitan post-historicists seem to want to throw out this culture that has driven the world into an enlightened age of post-industrial affluence and peace. They disdain America and its government. With their broad influence they have caused a large mass of Americans to be blind to their own nation and to even deprecate the value scholarship and basic education about its heritage and especially the patrimony handed to them of the U.S. Constitution. These are just a few thoughts sparked by a book by Eric Lane and Michael Orestes called The Genius of America: How the Constitution Saved Our Country and Why It Can Again.

There is no denying that America is great. It is powerful militarily, economically, and even morally. However, there is rot from within, and this is the issue treated in "The Genius of America". But the genius of this work is not so much that it is a warning bell about the demise of the American system, followed by a clarion call for better education about our culture and government, it is also an education in and of itself. It is an astute analysis of how the founding document was created in the forge of compromise, and was built to perpetuate compromise as a way of moving the country forward with the fewest bumps and jolts along the way.

The book efficiently carries the reader (for this is not a heavy tome - 221 pages not including end notes) through the major crises of American history to show how the Constitution helped to carry the nation forward. The one great breakdown being the Civil War, patched up adroitly by the justly famed Lincoln. The authors remark on how well the system functioned up until the time of the Great Depression. The thesis of the book is that this is where the problems begin. Where government no longer is merely the place of compromise of interests; people began to have inflated expectations of their government.

This, the authors hypothesize, was okay as long as there was a unified view of what expectations should be fulfilled by the government. But about the time of Nixon (1968) the unified view fell apart. Many believed that the "Great Society" initiated by Johnson had taken the government a step too far. Many others thought that there were other grievances and interests that could also find solution in federal intervention. It was about this time that education, especially civic education, began its decline.

Lane and Orestes give several modern examples that demonstrate the disenchantment with our form of government including the initiative process, the Carter Administration's frustration with a Congress of its own party, and Oliver North's Contra support. Lane and Orestes are not conservatives, definitely not neo-conservatives, as they hold up the Iraq War as a demonstration of a breakdown of the system, a failure of Congress to do its job. (I think they may go too far with this statement, but not by much). Neither do they argue from a Liberal perspective. I think Liberals would squirm in their seats in reading this book, especially scanning passages regarding our education system and how the disdain for our own history has brought us internal conflict. The book is well-reasoned, does not take sides (at least not often) in the partisan bickering.

"The Genius of America" is really a positive and powerful advocacy for a brilliant system that has helped to mold the greatest nation in the history of mankind. The authors believe there is a practical solution, one that I feel would go far in correcting the current problems. It is called education. Although they don't propose it outright, I think they would like to see a brief but rigorous course on civics in every high school in the nation. In any case, it would be a good first step. It would be a simple and inexpensive way to expose future generations to the inner workings of our government and help them to understand rather than be frustrated with mechanisms that of necessity often work slowly. Both Conservatives and Liberals will find themselves grimacing at certain passages of "The Genius of America". Perhaps this is the best demonstration of the truth that lies within this work.

Highly recommended