An accessible and unique collection of foundational American documents, speeches, and sermons that shed light on where we came from and where we might go.
America is an ideal and a philosophy as much as a place. That ideal is an amalgam of the dreams and aspirations of millions of disparate people, molded into solid prose by master wordsmiths.
It’s not wrong to say that the America soul was forged in the smithy of the spoken word and printed page. We are a nation rooted in the revolutionary oratory of men like Patrick Henry and the pamphletry of Thomas Paine, the fiery rhetoric of Samuel Adams and stirring sermonizing from the pens and pulpits of men like the Revs. Jacob Cushing and Moses Mather. The colonial Committees of Correspondence and newspapers kept revolutionary ideas in circulation, while incendiary tracts by James Otis and others gave backbone and resolve to the colonists.
America’s reliance on the Word goes back to the Pilgrims and the Mayflower Compact. It continues through the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights. It emerges in the political struggles of the Revolution and the ratification arguments of our national charter. Language was so important to Noah Webster that he composed his dictionary specifically to distinguish Americans’ use of English from the British. It was obviously important to many others, as well, since it sold like crazy.
Americans needn’t turn to biased media to find our national identity. It’s already written richly into our history. The Portable Patriot makes the choicest and most valuable selections accessible again.
Pages:
288 Format:
Hardcover EAN/ISBN:
9781595551108 Publisher:
Thomas Nelson
