Richard Brookhiser's Give Me Liberty was published in 2019, likely as his contribution to the debate concerning American exceptionalism and what a legitimate American nationalism consists of assuming there can be one. In my view it is better placed as an alternative and maybe antidote to the 1619 Project, the self-conscious effort by the New York Times to recast American history as a nation conceived in original sin and dedicated to the proposition that only white people are entitled to membership in good standing. Their project is intended to lay the groundwork for "fundamental transformation" advocated by the cultural left and its political instantiation, the Democratic Party of the 21st century.

Brookhiser's work is broken into thirteen chapters (an esoteric nod to the original stars and stripes?). Each chapter relates the story behind a specific document, speech, or public statement that speaks to the "America's exceptional idea", liberty. He begins with the Virginia colony and the settlement in Jamestown and invites the reader to consider that in, yes 1619, there was more than one event that took place of what might be considered world historical significance - the first elections to and meeting of the Jamestown General Assembly, the beginning of self-government in America.

From there he relates the story of the Flushing Remonstrance and the trial of John Peter Zenger which called for religious tolerance and freedom of the press via an attempt to redefine the common law tradition of seditious libel long before they were incorporated into the First Amendment by the first Congress to be seated under the Constitution of 1787. There are the expected chapters on the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the Constitutional Convention, the debates over the adoption and how the of spirt of liberty and equality infused both documents.

In between the chapter on the Declaration and the chapter on the Constitution, Brookhiser discusses another constitution, that of the New York Manumission Society whose original membership included Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, George Clinton, lesser well know notables and a group of men who have been largely forgotten many of whom were Quakers including a descendant of one Robert Bowne who had been jailed by Peter Stuyvesant for allowing his home to be used as a meeting place for Quakers in 1662, five years after the presentation of the Flushing Remonstrance.

Like many of the theoretical opponents of the institution of slavery some of the founding members of the society actually owned slaves including Jay who owned five. It is the fashion among modern historians to dismiss these efforts to contain and over time abolish slavery (and to protect the legal status of free backs) as gross hypocrisy. But in 1827 when slavery was finally eliminated in New York, William Hamilton who had helped found the African Zion Church declaimed, "This day has the state of New York regenerated herself -this day has she been cleansed of a most foul, poisonous and damnable stain". After recognizing the efforts of the Society of Friends, Hamilton declared, "The most powerful lever, or propelling cause was the Manumission Society", He then paid tribute to 81 year old Jay, "that great and good statesman, the right honorable John Jay...Blessed God! How good it is, he has lived to see, as reward, the finishing of work he helped to begin".

Brookhiser devotes chapters to the history behind the Monroe Doctrine, the Seneca Falls Declaration on women's rights, the Gettysburg Address, the Statue of Liberty, the "Cross of Gold Speech" by William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Democratic convention, the Arsenal of Democracy fireside chat by FDR to justify the decision to supply the British with armaments to enable that country to fight on alone against Hitler and the Tear Down this Wall speech delivered by President Reagan in 1987 on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the city of Berlin.

In the conclusion Brookhiser acknowledges that there were other candidates for inclusion: Martin Luther King, Jr., Frederick Douglass, the Mayflower Compact and the Federalist Papers, et. al. It is his hope that the future will provide many more examples of public statements on the promise and spirit of American liberty.

If you are in the education "business' and looking for an alternative to the mandated deconstruction of the American experiment this is an outstanding book to put to good use. If you want both a good read and an eloquent reconstruction of many of the events of our history I give this work my highest recommendation. ( )