The 5000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen

Last summer I read this book and have wanted to write a review ever since. It is a fascinating review of our Founding Fathers' literature (both what they had to read to influence their thinking, and what they wrote). The subtitle clarifies the focus: "The 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World". There are many quotes in the book that I had never heard before related to views our Founding Fathers held about various topics. I'll include some of the more profound below.

Over all, it was not a well-written book in that it seemed like a prof's lecture notes simply transcribed for publication. There were a lot of connect-the-dot jumps in the material and not a fluid presentation, like someone who was telling a story. This made it a bit difficult to slog through the book. I think it could be better organized, but grant it is a substantial amount of material compressed into just over 300 pages.

I would recommend it in the end for the content, with the understanding that the presentation is weak.

Some quotes from the author:
de Tocqueville found that Americans were the freest people in the world. "Eventually, the world found that they were also the most generous people on earth. And all this was not because they were Americans. The Founders believed these same principles would work for any nation. The key was using the government to protect equal rights, not to provide equal things" p 119.

"Under no circumstances is the federal government to become involved in public welfare. The Founders felt it would corrupt the government and also the poor. No Constitutional authority exists for the federal government to participate in charity or welfare" p 121.

The real genius of the Constitution is that it "was designed to control something which has not changed and will not change - namely, human nature" p166.

Some quotes from the Founding Fathers:
"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." Benjamin Franklin

"If there be [no virtue among us], we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks, no form of government, can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea." James Madison

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams

"I, however, place economy among the first and most important of republic virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared." Thomas Jefferson

"...if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be know that we are at all times ready for war." George Washington to Congress

"The very fame of our strength and readiness would be a means of discouraging our enemies; for 'tis a wise and true saying, that 'One sword often keeps another in the scabbard.' The way to secure peace is to be prepared for war." Benjamin Franklin

"That some should be rich shows that others may become rich and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently to build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence...." Abraham Lincoln