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Title: Ark of the Liberties
Subtitle: America and the World
Author: Ted Widmer
Narrator: William Hughes
Format: Unabridged
Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
Language: English
Release date: 06-27-08
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Ratings: 1 of 5 out of 1 votes
Genres: History, American
Publisher's Summary:
With wit, brilliance, and deep affection, the inimitable Ted Widmer traces America's wondrous history, from the Declaration of Independence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He also looks unblinkingly at our less glorious history, from slavery to the occupation of Iraq.
This thoughtful, celebratory critique is written in the conviction that if Americans want the world to respect us more, then it will certainly help to know ourselves a little better.
Critic Reviews:
"[A] critical, informative and ambitious study that honors the best American impulses without ignoring the times the country has fallen from grace." (Publishers Weekly)
Members Reviews:
One for history buffs
The text is interesting and well written but very uneven in subject matter. The last chapter on the Clinton administration was unnecessary.
Superficial fluff
It is hard to write a serious review of this book, because the book doesn't say anything. It is US history, but the topic suggests that international affairs would be a more appropriate focus. The important period for understand current affairs are from WW II to the present. The framing of the constitution is important, as are the ideas of the Founding Fathers. But, we should learn how these ideas reverberated in democratic movements and constitutions in the rest of the world. There is none of that---just a lot of historical fluff of the sort one finds when Googling a topic and randomly writing a narrative on what one found.
The development of democracy in Latin America never gets focus. Allende is mentioned on one page, Cuba gets passing mention, as does Guatemalan death squads. El Salvador is not in the index, and the Trilateral Commission is never mentioned. This is a truly pathetic treatment of the region. Africa is treated even more casually. There are a few pages on the Philippines, but the role of the Reagan administration in promoting democracy in the Philippines is not mentioned. The relationship between democracy in the US and the promotion of democracy in the European Community is mentioned in passing on one page.
Someone should write this book. Widmer should stick to writing Presidential speeches and issuing little sound bites.
Timely and Highly Readable
Let's face it. We Americans have a pretty sad track record when it comes to
knowing much about our nation's history, and understanding how our history
shapes our current lives and futures. With the United States now having more
interaction than ever with the rest of the world, it is even more critical
for each of us to gain knowledge of our past, and especially in the area of
foreign relations.
This book offers a timely and highly readable portrait of a fascinating part
of America's story: how the country was shaped from earliest moments to
become "the world's guarantor of liberty," and how it has variously grappled
with and cultivated that role in different eras.
The author is informed and entertaining. He sweeps readers through five
centuries of colorful, often uplifting, sometimes disturbing aspects of
America's unique qualities, beginning well before colonization and moving
through to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I'm one of those Americans who is sheepishly ignorant of a lot of the
standard US history we're meant to have learned in high school or college.
