Leftists would have us believe that the Founders were a bunch of greedy white racists whose only concern in establishing the United States was to protect their ill-gotten wealth and status. That, for example, is the view propounded by the 1619 Project.
Anyone who bothers to actually study the Founders, however, finds that this “progressive” caricature is groundless and deliberately misleading. Very useful in this regard is a new book published by Northwood University Press: Books and the Founding Fathers and Their Influence on America Today, by George H. Nash and Timothy G. Nash.
In the opening essay, the eminent historian George Nash writes about the books that influenced the Founders. They had read deeply about the history of ancient Greece and Rome as well as Britain over several centuries and were focused on creating a nation that would withstand the pressures that had enabled tyranny to triumph over liberty so often in the past. Nash writes that what drove the Founders was “the accumulated experience of past ages derived from books. It was real to them. It mattered. What it could teach them was profound.”
Professor Timothy Nash contributes several chapters focused on individuals who used their talents and ambition to succeed in the liberal (in its true sense) system that the Founders created. He writes, “Ideas are powerful, and history is full of idealists who put grand visions for society onto paper, only for the consequences to become nothing less than dystopian.” Fortunately, the Founders did not do that. We learn about Karen Buchwald Wright, an Ohio woman who was greatly successful in her business producing natural gas compressors, about Richard DeVos, a Michigan entrepreneur who built the company Amway from scratch, and about Willie Davis, a black football player from Louisiana who starred in Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers, earned a graduate degree from the University of Chicago, and enjoyed a successful business career.
Another accolade for the book: It was cited in an amicus brief by Advancing American Freedom in a case before the Supreme Court that challenges New York’s rent control law — specifically, James Madison’s argument that property rights must be protected against government functionaries who “have propensities to command at will the liberty & property of their constituents.”
In our 250th year, it’s important for Americans to learn about the real views and goals of the Founders. This book is an excellent resource.