Book Review

Fire of Liberty

Max Boot has an insightful review of Thomas E. Woods Jr's popular book Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. Boot pretty much destroyed the historian's arguments within this single review . Two arguments that caught my attention in the review was Boot's concentration on The Civil War and the discussion on our military interventions throughout our 200 plus year history.

Starting with The Civil War, Boot points out the absurdities to Woods arguments that the war was caused by Northern Aggression or the greed of wealthy Northerners. Any student of history who has read Lincoln knows full well that The Civil War was fought on the main argument of re-uniting the severed Union. The best argument I've found so far to support this is Dinesh D'Souza's article Lincoln: Tyrant, Hypocrite or Consumate Statesman which appeared in American History Magazine. Here's what D'Souza had to say about Lincoln and the issue of The Civil War:

Lincoln argued that the South had no right to secede -- that the Southern states had entered the Union as the result of a permanent compact with the Northern states. That Union was based on the principle of majority rule, with constitutional rights carefully delineated for the minority. Lincoln insisted that since he had been legitimately elected, and since the power to regulate slavery in the territories was nowhere proscribed in the Constitution, Southern secession amounted to nothing more than one group's decision to leave the country because it did not like the results of a presidential election, and no constitutional democracy could function under such an absurd rule. Of course the Southerners objected that they should not be forced to live under a regime that they considered tyrannical, but Lincoln countered that any decision to dissolve the original compact could only occur with the consent of all the parties involved. Once again, it makes no sense to have such agreements when any group can unilaterally withdraw from them and go its own way.

As for the argument that the US military was dispatched more times under President Bill Clinton than anytime in our nation's history, I suggest Professor Woods needs to read more hisory. If he just looked throughout the nation's history, he'd discover we've had troops dispatched here and there more times than one recalls. Does anyone remember Marquesas, China, Kore, Samoa,The Boxer Rebellion, The Philippines, Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, or exev Mexico. Now these happened in the 19th Century and might not be known by the lay reader but a Ph.D. in History should know. By the way, he could've read Mr. Boot's book The Savage Wars of Peace to learn these details.

Check out the book. I think I'll stay away from Woods history.