The textbooks assigned to our high-school and college students are part of the problem.
asserted
textbooks → assign → problem
They are turgid and unreadable, lacking in both conviction and literary flair.
asserted
They → lack → conviction
They do little or nothing to inspire in young Americans a sense of living connection to what has come before them.
asserted
what → do → them
What would it take to reverse this sorry state of affairs?
asserted
it → take → affairs
To remind students that they live not in an evil empire, but a land of hope?
asserted
they → remind → hope
I wrote “Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story” seven years ago to give American students that retelling, an alternative to the texts with which they were being taught.
asserted
they → write → which
Now, we’re releasing a second edition of “Land of Hope,” in a dedicated textbook format — designed with the input of countless teachers and students in mind — that seeks to spread this message further.
asserted
that → release → message
In creating this book, we went against many of the prevailing currents.
asserted
we → create → currents
First, we made the decision to produce a physically beautiful book — not an ebook or a PDF.
asserted
we → make → book
It is meant to be a pleasure to hold and read and to become a permanent part of young people’s libraries.
asserted
It → mean → libraries
A physical book is not only demonstrably better than a screen for reading comprehension, but it embodies permanence and stability in a way that a digital product cannot.
asserted
product → embody → way
The all-digital products that the publishing giants are pushing will leave nothing behind to fill the student’s empty shelves … or their minds.
asserted
giants → push → shelves
We also refused to dumb down the reading level.
asserted
We → refuse → level
The book is written with the conviction that we should aim high and never sell short the capacity of our young people.
asserted
we → write → people
Such books are far more likely to fire their imaginations and convey the excitement of history.
asserted
books → fire → history
Then there are the enduring themes of the book — we went against the grain with them too.
asserted
we → be → them
Four of them are prefigured in the book’s title.
asserted
Four → prefigure → title
First, there is the declaration that America is a land of hope.
asserted
America → be → hope
It is not only an idea, although it is certainly that, but it is also a place, a people and a nation; a nation with a history, a great and very particular history, connected to a particular piece of real estate.
asserted
it → connect → estate
Second, I call America a land of hope, to emphasize our nation’s aspirational dimension.
asserted
I → call → dimension
Americans have always sought to rise above the conditions into which we were born.
asserted
we → seek → which
That is precisely what has drawn so many immigrants to our shores over the centuries and continues to do so today: the promise of a second chance in life.
asserted
what → draw → life
This points toward a third element, the element of story — the Great American Story.
asserted
This → point → story
We humans are, at our core, remembering and story-making creatures.
asserted
We → remember → creatures
Stories are one of the chief ways we find meaning in the flow of events.
asserted
we → find → events
A fragmented, convictionless rendering of our past gives us little to remember and little to aspire to.
asserted
rendering → give → little
A truthful telling of the American story must acknowledge the deeply aspirational aspect of a nation’s life, and particularly for so aspirational a nation as the United States — arguably the most aspirational nation in all of history.
And yet there is no denying the fact that we’ve often failed, and fallen far short of our ideals.
asserted
we → acknowledge → ideals
That part of the story has to be told too.
asserted
part → have → story
And so our very sense of hope has a double-edged quality about it.
asserted
sense → have → it
To be a land of hope is also to risk being a land of disappointment, even of disillusionment.
asserted
be → risk → disillusionment
But so too are our repeated efforts to rise above our faults, and correct them.
asserted
efforts → repeat → them
This book is meant to usher its readers into a larger room, a larger gathering, a gathering of which they are already a part, even if they did not know it or feel it before.
asserted
they → mean → it
The story being told is not merely someone else’s.
asserted
story → tell → ?
It is theirs too, if they wish to claim it.
uncertain
they → wish → it
“Land of Hope” will help them to do so.
asserted
them → help → Hope
Wilfred McClay holds the Victor Davis Hanson Chair in Classical History and Western Civilization at Hillsdale College.
asserted
McClay → hold → College
The Aporia
