Ten Books Every Patriot Should Read

I think this topic is well-suited for Patriot’s Day and the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks.  In the midst of money-hungry politics and ferocious elections, it’s easy to lose sight of the core values, ideas, and philosophies of what being an American is all about.

These ten books serve as a good reminder for all of us.  They also show us that there is still a lot of work to be done.

1984 by George Orwell.  Orwell’s classic 1949 novel is a cautionary tale presented in the form of a futuristic society controlled by a totalitarian regime.  A suffocating dystopia, this frightening new world depicts what happens when absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Though 1984 takes place in London, it is a universal story - and a brave, disturbing warning against giving the authorities too much authority.  It is an empowering, explosive novel that is, sadly, as applicable today as when it was written.  1984, through its terrifying vision, shows us that knowledge is not only power.  It’s patriotism.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown.  People with a different skin color, a different culture, and a different religion encroach upon the homeland of another and systemically plan a series of violent attacks in the name of liberation.  Sound familiar?  In Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown meticulously recounts the plight of Native Americans in the late nineteenth century, displaced from their land and slaughtered by the U.S. government.  Another (unfortunately) timeless book that bears that most bitter of lessons: those who do not learn from history are bound to be repeat it.  To be a true American patriot, it is vital to understand where the many roots of patriotism lie - both the good roots and  the bad.

Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau.  Thoreau, a quintessential American patriot, was outraged by the dehumanization of slavery and war, and set forth a list of masterful ideas called nonviolent resistance.  These idea would go on to inspire the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.  In his essay Civil Disobedience, Thoreau challenged his countrymen to peacefully rebel against a government that was trying to control the conscience of the people.  He also resisted, by refusing to pay taxes and ending up in prison, the government’s attempts to make American citizens arbiters of injustice.  ”That government is best which governs least,” he wrote, introducing the radical idea that Americans needn’t be sheep, but instead a people ruled by conscience -their own and not their politicians’.  Now that’s patriotism.

Common Sense by Thomas Paine.  ”O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe…. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.”  These words, by British-born American revolutionary Thomas Paine, were written in 1776 as a common sense appeal to British authorities for colonial independence.  Yet, in this age of war and terror, we can still find the inspiration and pride inherent in Paine’s words: a renegade call to action to stand up, be counted, and rail against the injustices imposed both at home and abroad.  Paine reminds us that there is strength in numbers, and only when we realize this will the REAL revolution begin.

The End of America by Naomi Wolf.  Subtitled “A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot”, Naomi Wolf’s brilliant 2007 treatise outlines the ten steps countries undertake when transforming into a dictatorship.  The scholarship of this book is brilliant, intelligent, and upsetting.  But what’s even more upsetting is that all ten steps have already been initiated by our current administration (and most of them covertly, away from the glare of public knowledge).  Wolf shows us how we are sleepwalking our way along a rocky, downhill path, and only when we wake up will we truly be worthy of the title “patriot”.  There’s great sense in the fact that if we refuse to let our constitutional freedoms be destroyed, it is then, and only then, that we will begin to understand the meanings of patriotism, liberty, and pride.

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.  The quintessential book of American poetry by the man who just might be the greatest American poet.  Whitman’s 1855 collection of poems cloaks radical ideas of freedom in the guise of some of the most spellbinding poetry ever written.  Written in a time when the chaste overseers of American morality were constantly looking over his shoulder, Whitman threw himself into the naked thrill of the senses and fearlessly crafted his beautiful, patriotic odes.  But Whitman knew something far more profound than what it means to be an American, or even a patriot for that matter.  He knew what it meant to be human, a citizen of the world, demanding justice from blind authorities.  Making his claims in the form of verse, Whitman wrote of the hopes of an entire people, a nation, and, in many ways, the world entire.  ”I am he who tauntingly compels men, women, nations, / Crying, Leap from your seats and contend for your lives!”  (from On Blue Ontario’s Shore).

A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn.  Zinn’s 1980 book is the story of the America our high school history textbooks conveniently left out.  Meticulously researched and wonderfully written, A People’s History charts the development of the nation through the eyes of the disenfranchised: blacks, women, American Indians, war resisters, and poor laborers.  Reading this book, it is impossible not to grasp that the bravery of those history forgot are just as important as the courage of those she remembered.  Perhaps even more so.

Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy.  JFK’s 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winner is the chronicle of eight rogue senators throughout history who disregarded party lines and ignored the status quo by following their own ideas of freedom and patriotism.  Faced with criticism and unpopularity from their colleagues and constituents, the men Kennedy celebrates had the courage and fortitude to bring justice and equality to those deprived of it.  We can all take a lesson from the eight senators who put their careers, and perhaps even their lives, on the line for the good of the American people.  This is patriotism at its fearless best.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  The landmark novel, long considered the best American novel ever written, is so much more than a coming-of-age tale or a courtroom drama.  Lee’s only novel (another Pulitzer winner) is a story of social inequality, racism, classism, gender roles, rape, and the bravery of one man who dares to take these issues on - forever altering the American literary and political landscapes.  Atticus Finch, defending a black man accused of raping a white woman, is a fictional hero we should all strive to be: heroic, sensible, whip-smart, and fully comprehending of the fact that just because a law is a law doesn’t make it just.  Finch is imploring us to fight with the greatest weapon we possess: our hearts.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau.  In his trademark collection of essays, Thoreau examines the time he spent living in the woods outside Concord, Massachusetts.  Along the way, he carefully inspects the natural world, down to the tiniest points of detail, and uses these details to illustrate the workings of the government and the will of the people.  Isolating himself from society in an effort to understand it, Thoreau’s education drawn from nature is intensely moving and terrifically simple.  Simplicity and self-reliance, those are the two biggest lessons he walks away with.  And what better lessons for a patriot than the ability to think for oneself, whittle oneself down to the barest of necessities, and wake up to life so that it may be lived more deliberately and purposefully?  This deliberation, Thoreau came to understand, is at the heart of all those buzzwords that are popular even today: life, love, and the pursuit of happiness.

September 11, 2008 | Filed Under Authors, Essays, Commentary & Criticism, General Fiction, History, Poetry, Politics | Leave a Comment 

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