The long battle between exclusionary and inclusive versions of the American story Was America founded as a Christian nation or a secular democracy? Neither, argues Philip Gorski in American Covenant. What the founders envisioned was a prophetic republic that would weave together the ethical vision of the Hebrew prophets and the Western political heritage of civic republicanism. In this eye-opening book, Gorski shows why this civil religious tradition is now in peril—and with it the American experiment. American Covenant traces the history of prophetic republicanism from the Puritan era to today, providing insightful portraits of figures ranging from John Winthrop and W.E.B. Du Bois to Jerry Falwell, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama. Featuring a new preface by the author, this incisive book demonstrates how half a century of culture war has drowned out the quieter voices of the vital center, and demonstrates that if we are to rebuild that center, we must recover the civil religious tradition on which the republic was founded.

An intimate and candid account of our national parks and their strengths, vulnerabilities, and essential role in American life Part memoir, part critique, and paean to the value of national parks, American Covenant distills the experience and insights from two long careers in conservation. Michael A. Soukup and Gary E. Machlis show how the national parks are essential to maintaining the essence of our national heritage, and key to America's future in a changing climate and political landscape. Sharing real-world examples of both victories and defeats in protecting national parks, this candid, thoughtful book reminds us that the national parks are a promise--a covenant--within and between generations of Americans. The book is also a call to revitalize, reconstitute, reconfigure, and reform the National Park Service, which the authors believe is governed too much by outdated management practices and politics instead of a foundation of expertise and science.

A top conservative scholar reveals the Constitution’s remarkable power to repair our broken civic culture, rescue our malfunctioning politics, and unify a fractious America Common ground is hard to find in today’s politics. In a society teeming with irreconcilable political perspectives, many people have grown frustrated under a system of government that constantly demands compromise. More and more on both the right and the left have come to blame the Constitution for the resulting discord. But the Constitution is not the problem we face; it is the solution. Blending engaging history with lucid analysis, conservative scholar Yuval Levin’s American Covenant recovers the Constitution’s true genius and reveals how it charts a path to repairing America’s fault lines. Uncovering the framers’ sophisticated grasp of political division, Levin showcases the Constitution’s exceptional power to facilitate constructive disagreement, negotiate resolutions to disputes, and forge unity in a fractured society. Clear-eyed about the ways that contemporary politics have malfunctioned, Levin also offers practical solutions for reforming those aspects of the constitutional order that have gone awry. Hopeful, insightful, and rooted in the best of our political tradition, American Covenant celebrates the Constitution’s remarkable power to bind together a diverse society, reassuring us that a less divided future is within our grasp.

A history of mystic resistance and liberation and of five women who transcended the expected to transform America. For centuries, women who emerge as mystic leaders have played vital roles in American culture. For just as long, they've been subjugated and ridiculed. Today, women and others across the nation are once again turning to their mystic powers to #HexThePatriarchy and help fight the forces that seem bent on relegating them to second-class citizenry. Amid this tumult, Lucile Scott looks to the past and the stories of five women over three centuries to form an ancestral spiritual coven: Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans; Cora L. V. Scott, nineteenth-century Spiritualist superstar; Helena Blavatsky, mother of Theosophy; Zsuzsanna Budapest, feminist witch and founder of Dianic Wicca; and Marianne Williamson, presidential candidate and preacher of the New Age Gospel of Love. Each, in their own ways, defied masculine preconceptions about power. A scathing queer feminist history and a personal quest for transcendence, An American COVENant opens our eyes to the paths forged by women who inspired the nation in their own times--and who will no longer be forgotten or silenced in ours.

As our national fabric unravels before a watching world, the unanswered question of the twenty-first century cries for a response: What happened to the America that once led the world by example?To put it bluntly, we have forgotten the covenant that our Founders made with our Creator. Its very meaning has been canceled by a secular elite at war with the truth.The American Covenant: The Untold Story documents in exciting and vivid detail the Biblically-based principles and personalities that formed the foundation for America's economic, governmental, legal, educational, and spiritual institutions. The brilliant strategy of our Founders is contained in this volume and is providing hope for families and nations worldwide.As seen on Kirk Cameron's American Campfire Revival. Foreword by Kirk Cameron.

Welcome to a picture tour of five exciting countriesBritain, Spain, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Colombiaand five groups of very wonderful people, four of which are related to the presidential families. The story is meant to share vital insights into these countries from the people who live there. But it is more than those five countries because it goes back into time to the 60s to Texas and Mexico and all the territories of Australia. This is a story of how Texans and Mexicans made America a republic by being honest, hardworking people, like the Alamo said.

This volume looks at how, as America went through the 1960s, its achievement of superpower status invited both deep “Progressive” political changes at home (Johnson’s Great Society) and aggressive “Democratic” involvement abroad (Vietnam)—in both instances resulting in social catastrophe. The narrative continues, describing the battle to hold America’s traditional Christian political-moral foundations (based on the American family and local community) against the urge of Congressional Progressivists, a Liberal media, idealistic academics, a Boomer generation, and federal judges to rewrite those same standards along more Secular lines. It covers Nixon’s diplomatic successes abroad—yet his humiliation at home (Watergate); the resultant collapse of all social order in Indochina with the retreat of America from the region; Carter’s discovery that diplomatic “niceness” is not a good substitute for real power; the restoration of American national pride during the Reagan, Bush Sr., and Clinton years (thanks to strong but carefully measured policies); the disaster that hit when Bush Jr. decided to “democratize” Afghanistan and Iraq; the deep “Change” that Obama attempted to bring to a centuries-old traditional America; and finally the arrival of Trump, deeply contested by political adversaries. It looks at the moral-spiritual character (rather universally Christian) of America’s national leadership since 1960 and how that had its own impact on the country, even during this distinctly “post-Christian” period. The narrative concludes with a review of the various political-moral lessons we should draw from America’s own national narrative—particularly the necessity of getting back into an all-important Covenant relationship with God.

The long battle between exclusionary and inclusive versions of the American story Was America founded as a Christian nation or a secular democracy? Neither, argues Philip Gorski in American Covenant. What the founders envisioned was a prophetic republic that would weave together the ethical vision of the Hebrew prophets and the Western political heritage of civic republicanism. In this eye-opening book, Gorski shows why this civil religious tradition is now in peril—and with it the American experiment. American Covenant traces the history of prophetic republicanism from the Puritan era to today, providing insightful portraits of figures ranging from John Winthrop and W.E.B. Du Bois to Jerry Falwell, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama. Featuring a new preface by the author, this incisive book demonstrates how half a century of culture war has drowned out the quieter voices of the vital center, and demonstrates that if we are to rebuild that center, we must recover the civil religious tradition on which the republic was founded.

This volume traces the trends and the developing relationships of constitutionalism and covenant that ultimately led to the transformation of the latter into the former. Elazar explores the paths that emerged out of the constitutionalized covenantal tradition in Europe such as federalism, communitarianism, and the cooperative movement.