think again about democracy

Book review:

Our Ancient Faith:

Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment

Allen C. Guelzo

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2024

247 pages

Despite the title, Guelzo’s estimable book is not primarily or thematically about Abraham Lincoln. It is a densely researched and completely explained treatise on democracy, what it means, and what it might mean.

Our Ancient Faith opens new vistas of thought for me, and I’m thankful for my newly conceptual ideas about democracy, including the good, the bad, and the ugly. Make no mistake, democracy isn’t inherently our salvation. We’ve got a lot to do as we go down that path.

Granted, the reader will learn about Lincoln, although a good grounding in Lincoln’s life story and his times will serve the reader well.

I’m a bit leery of believing that I know for certain what a dead man was thinking when he said this and that. Guelzo perhaps reads too deeply into Lincoln’s recorded words. The book certainly is not hagiographic, and Lincoln certainly was a deep thinker, but I don’t want to forget that Lincoln was an ambitious man and a politician.

I’ll be inclined to read the book again for the expansive exposition of political thought.

The book, with extensive notes, is 247 pages, a very sensible length.

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Book review: The Snow Goose

…sensual drama, eminently poetic…

by Paul Gallico

click here

As with another eye: Poems of exactitude with 55 free verse and haiku poems,

and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)

and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”