BOOK REVIEW
Whose virtues, whose values?
THE BOOK OF AMERICAN VALUES AND VIRTUES: Our Tradition of Freedom, Liberty & Tolerance. Edited by Erik A. Bruun and Robin Getzen (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers). 624 pages.
by Seth Rogovoy(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Feb. 2, 1997) -- What do Dwight D. Eisenhower, Alice Walker, Yip Harburg, Jimmy Durante, Clint Eastwood, Mark Twain, Felix Frankfurter, Joan Baez, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Dorothy Parker, Popeye, Dr. Seuss, Ethel Waters and Archibald MacLeish all have in common? They are all contributors to a sort of meta-cultural, meta-historical conversation about liberty, freedom and tolerance, according to Erik A. Bruun and Robin Getzen, editors of the wonderful, new compilation of quotations, "The Book of American Values and Virtues."
This hefty tome -- 684 pages with index -- collects excerpts from essays, books, poems, songs, novels, letters, stories, journals, speeches and the like by Americans from all eras and walks of life. These "patriotic contributors," as the editors call them, are united in their ability "to articulate what it is that makes the United States of America special."
Thus, on democracy, we have a former president, Woodrow Wilson, who wrote, "America lives in the heart of every man everywhere who wishes to find a region where he will be free to work out his destiny as he chooses."
And a former radical, Eldridge Cleaver: "With all of its faults, the American political system is the freest and most democratic in the world."
And a theologian, Reinhold Niehbuhr: "Man's capacity for evil makes democracy necessary and man's capacity for good makes democracy possible."
Or on freedom, we have slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr: "Freedom is not free."
And rock poet Bob Dylan: "How many years can some people exist/Before they're allowed to be free?"
And Gloria Steinem, the feminist editor, on why she never married: "I can't mate in captivity."
Or, musing on the industriousness of the American spirit, there is hall of famer Babe Ruth: "How to hit home runs: I swing as hard as I can...."
And opera diva Beverly Sills: "You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try."
And playwright Eugene O'Neill: "Happiness hates the timid!"
This is the sort of book you might keep lying around in one of those places in the house where you often find yourself seated with your hands free and a few minutes of idling time while you are otherwise engaged. At that point, you might dip into the book and come across Whoopi Goldberg paraphrasing the ancient sage Hillel ("If you don't look out for others, who will look out for you?), or Jesse Jackson stirring up one of his marvelously, mixed-metaphorical stews ("Our flag is red, white, and blue, but our nation is a rainbow....America is not like a blanket....America is more like a quilt.")
The book is divided into 14 thematic chapters that take their titles from phrases from the preamble to the U.S. Constitution ("We, the People," "Establish Justice," "Promote the General Welfare") and other key documents ("All Men are Created Equal," "Pursuit of Happiness," "Let Freedom Ring").
The strength of any such collection of tidbits lies in the reader's ability or willingness to bring his own thoughts to the party. Fortunately, Bruun, of Great Barrington, and Getzen, of Lenox, have done their homework well, and the wide variety of sources they have amassed, as well as some clever, provocative juxtapositions, are bound to spark the imagination in all but the dullest of readers.
There is, of course, a subtext to the book -- or rather, a wider context -- and that is that the book is intended to serve as a sort of rejoinder or antidote to the likes of former Education Secretary William J. Bennett, whose "Book of Virtues" wants to claim possession of the American tradition for the political Right.
Bruun and Getzen steer clear from any overt polemics, instead allowing the expansive, inclusive text to speak for itself. And that it does eloquently, as a testament to the expansive, inclusive vision that lies at the heart of the American tradition elaborated on variously by the likes of Helen Keller, Mario Cuomo, Diana Ross, Henry James, Janis Joplin, Angela Davis, Marcus Garvey, Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln.
[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1997. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
Next Article
Copyright © 1996 Zenn New Media, LLC
