We as Americans seldom think of our country as a philosophic football. We talk about the constitution, our government and politics and even some of the underlying ideas that have been adopted by the major parties or movements. Yet philosophers from Tocqueville to Lawler have speculated on the notion that America is a philosophic embodiment of fundamental principles.

Lawler's book, "Alien's In America" is a fascinating overview of different perspectives of the philosophic meaning of America. This, at first glance, would seem a dry subject fraught with every undergraduate student's dread of fulfilling his required 3 credit hours in philosophy. Far from it, Lawler treats his subject with the verve and passion of someone who cares deeply about his subject. He understands that the underlying thought girding our politics and culture is vital to our understanding and even more important in directing our actions.

Lawler begins his exploration of modern thought on America by jumping with both feet into Fukuyama's notions about the "End of History". The idea is that the Declaration of Independence, and the founding of America may constitute a move of the individual from a soul-searching miserable man to a complacent creature without a soul who is no longer able to propel himself and society forward in any meaningful way. This idea seems perplexing and quite contradictory to the narrative that is our history; but it is wrapped up in the idea that the ultimate victory of liberalism is inevitable and that liberalism, because of its emphasis on complete freedom and moral relativism, will completely erode all meaning and nobility from human life and return our natures to those of the animals. Liberalism, in essence, takes away what makes us distinctly human.

Though Fukuyama and other modern thinkers see the progress of history toward total human freedom (read freedom from morality) to be inevitable, Lawler himself does not seem to agree. He runs through the gamut of modern philosophers, Rorty, Ceaser, Sagan, Murray, Tocqueville and, most prominent, Walker Percy to show that America and the American experience is not an irresistible movement towards the destruction of our humanity.

The American experience is, rather, a constant conflict between complete freedom and moral self-control. Not that these two forces are always mutually exclusive; in many ways they need each other to function properly in our society. As Lawler and the oft quoted John Courtney Murray would have it, America is a nation where moral boundaries are created, maintained and even imposed on the rest of the world.

Lawler seems to see the modern political battles between the right and left as the obvious physical manifestation of the duel between freedom and morality. He cites political events in modern American history to prove his point. Yet the battle between right and left is not necessarily a struggle between freedom and morality juxtaposed as a battle between right and left. For the left has its own morality wrapped up in a dogmatic adoption of socialistic, ecco-extremist pantheism. While the right comes down hard on the side of smaller, decentralized government. If anything, the left would restrict the field of human action while the right would broaden its scope even while maintaining the moral boundaries necessary to a just society.

"Aliens in America" is a far ranging book that challenges the mind and the way we think about ourselves and America. It presents a view of what it means to be a human and what being a human means in America. The insights in this book may change the way you look at yourself and the world. If nothing else, it will make you think.

This book can be purchased at Amazon.com.