Forged in Liberty
Review of 'Founder’s Fire' by Arthur Herman
I’m back in the pages of the always wonderful Commentary magazine with a review of historian Arthur Herman’s new book, Founder’s Fire: From 1776 to the Age of Trump. The book discusses how America’s enterprising spirit and empowerment of risk-seeking visionaries, in both politics and business, have characterized American history, centering this “founder’s fire” at the heart of our national narrative. The book is an excellent and interesting reframing of our past that builds up our nation instead of tearing it down - something far more in vogue among historians these days. The book is a great counter to the doomerism that has infected the modern American elite, bringing an optimism about the future that is deeply rooted in the successes of our past. Given the proximity to our nation’s 250th anniversary, this paean to American dynamism comes at a perfect time. And being able to review it for Commentary’s special America 250 issue is an absolute honor.
Below is an excerpt, but you can read the whole thing here.
The men who quite literally laid their lives on the line to forge this United States possessed a founder’s ethos—an exceptional approach that combined innovative thinking, extraordinarily high risk tolerance, unique vision, and dogged persistence. That same ethos has driven the country inexorably forward, helping achieve the dreams of our earliest forefathers and making America the most powerful and prosperous nation on earth. We are at our best when we embrace this adventurous and visionary spirit, both in public and private affairs. Such is the case that the historian and COMMENTARY contributor Arthur Herman posits in his latest book, Founder’s Fire: From 1776 to the Age of Trump. And that case is compelling.
In Herman’s telling, American history has been characterized by a series of foundings and re-foundings, simultaneously bringing us back to the first principles that made our nation unique and pushing us forward to surmount greater heights. These include crafting the documents and ideology that birth-ed America itself, preserving the Union through the dark night of civil war, developing the industries that allowed us to dominate the 20th century, winning a world war through the power of logistics and manufactur-ing, expanding civil rights to all Americans, and birthing the technologies that will see humanity advance to our next great frontier. These events were driven by extraordinary people with a relentless drive to pursue greatness and fulfill their own specific, often idiosyncratic vision. These “founders” had a great deal in common, from an immense appetite for risk and a penchant for perfection to a tenacity that bordered on obsessiveness and a visionary ability to imagine a different, brighter future. Whether in politics or business—and certainly in the synthesis of the two—this ethos has been behind most of the major successes and bold ideas that have characterized our national history for the past quarter-millennium.