Intellectual History: "The Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal," George Packer

Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal
--George Packer

Last Best Hope: 43 pages, 4091 words, some visuals

“I speak the password primeval. I give sign of
democracy.
By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have
their counterpart of on the same terms.”
--Walt Whitman


Prologue
Americans:
--with our dollars and easy smiles and loud voices
--have not been welcome abroad during the pandemic
--some have applied for visa from other countries

--the virus interrupted us
--forced us to look at ourselves and for once pay attention that we’ve always taken for granted from others.

Lincoln: How would America die?
--“if destruction should be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.
As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
--Was the Civil War a form of suicide?

Self-government. Democracy In action
--not just rights
--not just laws and institutions,

--what free people to together
--the habits and skills that enable us to run our own affairs.
--Walter Lippman, “men will do almost anything but govern themselves. They don’t want the responsibility.”

Last Best Hope: 43 pages, 4091 words, some visuals