The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers (The Politically Incorrect Guides)

This is a truly wonderful book. It answers some of the many questions I had about what my three children were learning about American History during their six years studying in Boston Latin School. Living in the heart of historic Boston, I was constantly being stunned and amazed that my children didn't know who the various statues in their neighborhood honored. They had grown up riding their Big Wheels and bicycles around some of these bronze statues of famous Americans without having the faintest idea of each statue's identity. All three could tell me who Harriet Tubman was, but none could tell me exactly why Paul Revere, Sam Adams and John Hancock were famous. They did recognize two of the names--one was a well-known beer and the other was the name of Back Bay Boston's tallest building. For all those fans of the Jay Leno television Walking Tours who were constantly shocked of the level of ignorance in the general public as demonstrated by his perfectly normal appearing tourists that Jay asked simple questions to at "Universal City," this book answers many of the questions that none of Jay's clueless average American tourists could answer even after he gave them clues. You know, "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb" or "Who is Washington D.C. named after?" This book is a long overdue correction of the media and educational record. The honor of the title of the "Greatest Generation" belongs to "the Founders, the men who pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor for the cause of liberty and independence...The Founding generation has no equal, and it deserves to be rescued from politically correct textbooks, teachers, and professors who want to dismiss the Founder as cadre of dead, white, sexist, slave-holding males." "De-emphasizing, or disparaging, men like Washington, Jefferson, and Henry serves a purpose. It is meant to sever our attachment to, and our respect for, the Founders and their principles and to replace them with the Left's own ideal of a living' Constitution that better reflects our increasing diverse nation and the interests..." "The irony is that the Founders had a better understanding of the problems we face today than do our own members of Congress." This book will help explain why all of this is true and why the myths and falsehoods about the Founding Fathers have purposely been perpetrated by the educational system and the liberal media. This volume tries to correct these myths such as the Founders "created a democracy." They created a republic and greatly feared a pure democracy. In addition to correcting the widely held myths, the first part of the book also explains "A Conservative Revolution" that is what "The Declaration of Independence," "The U.S. Constitution" together with its "Bill of Rights" really was. The third section of the book's First Part spells out the issues facing us today, but that were foreseen by the Founders and how they devised a way to handle them centuries into the future. Part II gives great biographical sketches of the "The Big Six" of the Founding Fathers--Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Hamilton and Franklin. It then discusses several of the almost completely forgotten and ignored Founders--Adams, Carroll, Clinton (George not our Bill), Hancock and others most Americans have never heard have. The conclusion of the book is entitled "What the Founding Fathers Would Do" if they were here now. That includes radical ideas such as "Follow the Constitution," "Cut Federal Spending and Reduce the Public Debt," "Eliminate Taxes...," "Reassert State Control over State Issues," and "Preserve the Bill of Rights." The book also explains why the author can say this without actually having spoken to the individual "Founders." It is possible to read and study their own thoughts and words on all these subjects and to then study their actions. Unlike today, the Founders seldom said one thing and then did exactly the opposite. And because of their personal experiences, they predicted many of the current problems facing American and tried to set up a system to avoid, or later, correct them. The book includes a excellent index and bibliography to help the reader double-check anything he might find difficult to believe or understand. While this review may seem too much like an outline, the book is actually quite fascinating, especially the biographies and the events surrounding the people in those biographical portraits. This is what is never taught in American Schools anymore. This is why Americans are so ignorant of what their government is doing to them. This is why they don't know how to correct what their elected, and now many non-elected and unanswerable officials are doing to them. This book should be required reading in every high school and college in America. It's pretty interesting and even the students in our poorest public schools could comprehend it. After all, one of the few good results of all the texting, tweeting, computering going on today is that the users have to both read and write. The social websites are helping to correct the deficits in learning to read, write and understand that aren't being taught in most American schools. They are actually becoming a wonderful media that opens the whole world to the users of these personal communication devices. This book is the latest in a series of "Politically Incorrect Guides" and for people who wish to better understand Capitalism and The Great Depression and the New Deal, and other important subjects, these guides are a wonderful starting point.

A true classic for anyone wanting to know and understand our founding fathers and the principles that guided their thought and actions.

What an interesting book. Had to get another one for a sister-in-law.

In the Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers, Dr. McClanahan dispels the many untruths regarding the Founders and shows why their ideas are still relevant today. Progressive historians want to discredit the Founding Fathers and portray them as horrible people so that Americans will reject the Founders' beliefs and intent for our country. One popular misconception is that America is a democracy when in actuality it is a republic. The Founding Fathers feared that if society became overly democratic, one faction of people could oppress the others. Therefore, power must be divided among different branches of government . No single branch of government can become too powerful; rather checks and balances are set in place . The Founding Fathers were not influenced by the ideas of the French philosophers and did not fight a war to achieve radical new goals like in France. The Founders strongly believed in limited government and states rights .Controversial issues such as the right to bear arms and the place of religion in society is discussed in this book. The Founders were deeply religious and certainly did not want religion to be excluded from public life. They also believed that individuals have the right to own firearms. In this book, Dr. McClanahan also mentions some of the Founding Fathers that are less known to most Americans and points out why they are not discussed in most history textbooks. After reading this book, I definitely feel that I have learned more about the Founding Fathers than I knew before. The author includes quotes by the Founders and lists other books to read about them. The author even includes a chapter on what the Founders would do today regarding various issues such as: government spending, the national debt, use of taxpayer money, states rights, the constitution ,etc. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn the truth about America's Founding Fathers.

Context... The real question is what was the context under which the constitution was written. I love this book for helping to frame the context of the struggle at that point in history. It helps:1. To understand that the colonists did not consider themselves as "AMERICANs". Their thinking was that of "free Englishmen" with all the rights and priviledges that went with any Englishman residing in England. After their attempts to reconcile with the crown failed for unfair taxation and other issues, then they were left with little choice but to start the revolution.2. To understand that the thinking was the States were to hold the ultimate power with limited central government. It started with united States, not United States.3. To understand that they founding fathers were not against Christianity or religion (After all, Inalienable Rights are given by God), but they were against government promoting or creating a religion (e.g. Church of England). They did, however, accept and promote the presence of God as part of their lives.4. To understand the most of the founding fathers were against democracy! The constitution established a republic (not a democracy), and even the Senators were originally appointed by the states (not elected to office like members of the House of Representatives) and intentially avoided direct election of the President via the Electoral College process.There are a lot more interesting tidibts, especially in each chapter dealing with the key founding fathers.The real value of the book, to me, was helping understand the context of the life and times which drove these men to develop this great document we call the constitution. I would recommend everyone read this book to help put history into context.