Publishers Weekly

What Would the Founders Do? Our Questions, Their Answers

Richard Brookhiser

Basic, $25 (256p) ISBN 0-465-00819-4

Reviewed by Michael Lind

It might be thought that nothing new could be said about America's founding fathers, in the midst of the contemporary avalanche of tomes about Washington, Jefferson and other early American leaders. But Rick Brookhiser, inspired perhaps by a Christian motto-"What Would Jesus Do?" (WWJD)-has come up with a way to describe the views of the architects of… more

Religion and politics used to be the two great taboos of polite conversation. Today politics is everywhere, right down to the Fox and CNN ubiquitous at the gym. But religion remains a special case. The mainstream news media--television in particular, which is where many Americans get the bulk of their information--treads lightly when it touches it at all, afraid of giving offense or oversimplifying and reaping the consequences. Talking heads pontificating about Islam as a source of terror is not… more