BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION . . .

                                    

Daily reports in print, on television, and over the Internet make it easy to conclude that the United States is going to hell in a handbasket.  The economy is in tatters.  Race relations remain strained despite the election of the first African-American president.  Sexual escapades flood the media.  Public schools perform poorly, and turn out incompetent students.   Communication technology has morphed into a Frankenstein monster.  And if all that weren’t enough – and there is more! — deep flaws have developed in our national character.  Our culture reflects a lack of good taste.  Intellectual pursuits are viewed with suspicion and resentment.  Shallowness and selfishness dominate the sentiments and beliefs of the majority.  The government is broken.

Critics on both the Left and Right consider ours the worst of times in American history. These modern-day Cassandras and Nostradamuses lay doom-laden bets on the when of America’s demise. They describe a funeral procession already underway, although the soon-to-be-deceased (America as we knew it) remains unaware of its imminent burial.

Had enough?

 America: The Owners’ Manual shows how apocalyptic scenarios simplify complex situations. They’re meant to alarm, convince, and convert, not to illuminate. American life is not a binary affair; notions of America the Blighted or America the Beautiful do little to help us understand America the Real. 

The many problems besieging the United States today need to be evaluated in the broader and longer contexts out of which the American experience evolved.  Doing less makes it impossible to tell whether present difficulties are new, or simply warmed-over versions of the same old, same old.  Most of the time, the latter is true, giving us evidence that we’ve survived before and we’ll bounce back again.

America: The Owner’s Manual is all about perspective.  That’s the tool needed to understand the broad contours of American history, aspects of the past that have shaped the present and can guide us through the present and into the future.  Only perspective can allow us to distinguish what is real and true, reduce our unfounded fears, and help us move forward with confidence.

America: The Owner’s Manual addresses major developments in economics, politics, foreign policy, and cultural and social issues that have significantly shaped contemporary America. It does so without bias toward the left or the right.  Examples come from a wide variety of sources, both academic and popular, to create a full picture of how Americans have lived and dealt with trying situations over time.

This blog is meant to serve at least two audiences.  One is adults who care about what’s happening to the country and are feeling anxiety and confusion about it.  The second includes teachers of high school through college classes, who may use it to supplement coursework in modern American history, historiography, and contemporary issues.

Moderation might be considered a tough sell in a market driven by cuteness and sensationalism, but moderation is the unique, pervading quality of this blog.  Its moderate conclusions will please neither conservatives nor liberals whose work focuses on polarization. Likewise, its conclusions will disappoint those who see a United States forever basking in sunlight. The no-nonsense, golden mean approach of America:  The Owner’s Manual  is so NOT radical, it stands a good chance of becoming the new norm for people tired of endless shock and awe.  

 

The Author

 

After receiving his doctorate from Indiana University, Harvey Asher taught a variety of courses in history and interdisciplinary studies for thirty-five years at Drury University, a liberal arts school in Springfield, Missouri. His articles on themes in Russian history, American history, and the Holocaust have appeared in the Russian Review, Kritika, the Journal of Genocide Research, the Russian Dictionary, the SHARF Newsletter, Federalism in America: An Encyclopedia, and Lessons and Legacies of the Holocaust. He is also the author of The Drury Story Continues, an informal but thorough history of the school.

 

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