Jeremy Adams, a self-proclaimed “unapologetic romantic about the United States,” has been teaching high school civics in California for nearly 25 years. A decade ago, he was named the Daughters of the American Revolution California Teacher of the Year. He was also a finalist for the Carlston Family Foundation Outstanding Teachers of America Award.
Adams has long been in the educational trenches, helping students understand what it means to be an American, and the heritage and responsibility that comes with it. Living in California, he has also witnessed the detrimental impact of educational agendas that focus on American history’s negative elements. As Adams suggests in his new book, “Lessons in Liberty: Thirty Rules for Living from Ten Extraordinary Americans,” that type of education does more harm than good.
Variety and Depth
“Lessons in Liberty” is not just a study of 10 Americans, but a study “of the miracle of human freedom.” Throughout the book, Adams makes it abundantly clear that American freedom should be viewed in miraculous terms. According to the author, too much is missed if we ignore the greatness of our past figures. “I don’t want my fellow Americans to spend their lives suppressing a proud heritage because it’s fashionable to engage in self-loathing,” he writes.
Of those 10 Americans, some are of the usual suspects: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. But some are unusual, such as Daniel Inouye, Ben Nighthorse Campbell, and Arthur Ashe. It is clear that each of these 10 (who also include Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Clara Barton, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg) was chosen carefully. Adams demonstrates not just how much he knows about America’s historic figures but how well he knows them.
A Better Life?
A person who can harness these traits, or even just some of them, will experience a better life. Of course, that is not to ignore life’s challenges; all of these people endured hardships of varying kinds (often including tragedy or abuse). The promise is not for a better life in the context of fame and fortune, but rather in the capacity to endure and triumph over hardships. It is this capacity that, as Adams notes, should “command our attention and pique our interest.”“The world inhabited by the ten men and women of this book was just as broken and just as flawed as the world we are living in today. Perhaps more so,” he writes. “Despite this they found a way to live lives of deep and passionate meaning.”
This is the ultimate and unmistakable goal of “Lessons in Liberty.” Adams has seen young people come and go through his classroom—and as any good teacher, he has kept tabs on some, witnessing their rise or fall. They all, just as we, have the opportunity and capacity to “live lives of deep and passionate meaning.” Some simply need a roadmap, or a better one than they’ve been handed.
What Must Be Known
Young people must know about Washington’s virtue, Jefferson’s gift as a generalist, Barton’s sheer determination, Campbell’s forthright attitude, and Ginsburg’s across-the-political-aisle friendship with Antonin Scalia—a friendship that, as Adams points out, today seems “tragically unfathomable.”“This talent for human flourishing” can be achieved, but first there must be the prerequisite of principle, and that can never come by way of “self-loathing.” As Adams so eloquently notes, “Our King Arthurs don’t pull a sword from a stone, they study the law in log cabins and become the Great Emancipator, or they defy the weakness of their body and become the hero of San Juan Hill.”
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I initially worried it would be of little substance and a mere pandering to a singular political affiliation. Thankfully, it was neither and, in fact, far from both. “Lessons in Liberty” is indeed a book for all people from all walks of life. It is my hope that young people (or people in general) will read and practice the principles it extols.
