Shelf Life: Usable Past

MEMORIAL DAY offers an occasion to get in touch with the mystic chords of American memory. An eloquent reminder of some key episodes is provided by acclaimed historian Neil Baldwin in The American Revelation: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country from the Puritans to the Cold War (St. Martin’s, 253 pp., $24.95), which recounts episodes in which remarkable individuals put forward ideals that still have the power to motivate. Some of Baldwin’s chapters cover well-known territory, such as Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and George C. Marshall’s Plan to rebuild Europe; others explore less familiar stories, like those of playwright Israel Zangwill (author of The Melting-Pot) and African-American historian Carter G. Woodson. In telling his tales, Baldwin shows the American genius for combining individualism and public spirit: We have been, and remain, the country of John Winthrop and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The author succeeds in creating what he calls a “cumulative portrait of America as a place to begin anew, [and] an arena in which each individual should ennoble and serve the whole.”

The End of Time (Encounter, 157 pp., $23.95) is a moving and memorable change of pace for intellectual provocateur David Horowitz. In this brief memoir of illness, the agnostic Horowitz confronts issues of mortality with candor and depth, recognizing what he calls “the false consciousness that had accompanied me my entire life”:

About the Author

Michael Potemra

Michael Potemra was a literary editor for National Review.

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MEMORIAL DAY offers an occasion to get in touch with the mystic chords of American memory. An eloquent reminder of some key episodes is provided by acclaimed historian Neil Baldwin in The American Revelation: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country from the Puritans to the Cold War (St. Martin’s, 253 pp., $24.95), which recounts episodes in which remarkable individuals put forward ideals that still have the power to motivate. Some of Baldwin’s chapters cover well-known territory, such as Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and George C. Marshall’s Plan to rebuild Europe; others explore less familiar stories, like those of playwright Israel Zangwill (author of The Melting-Pot) and African-American historian Carter G. Woodson. In telling his tales, Baldwin shows the American genius for combining individualism and public spirit: We have been, and remain, the country of John Winthrop and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The author succeeds in creating what he calls a “cumulative portrait of America as a place to begin anew, [and] an arena in which each individual should ennoble and serve the whole.”

The End of Time (Encounter, 157 pp., $23.95) is a moving and memorable change of pace for intellectual provocateur David Horowitz. In this brief memoir of illness, the agnostic Horowitz confronts issues of mortality with candor and depth, recognizing what he calls “the false consciousness that had accompanied me my entire life”: