quotations

In all my studies throughout my childhood, schooling, military service, college, community activities, and charitable organization work. During which I tried to comprehend and understand, our great country and it's beginnings. I have found nothing more equal to this book. In my attempt to decern the true meanings of our founding documents and our founders most basic intentions, I began at the end with the Constitution and worked backwords. How much easier it would have been to have Mr. Federer's book at the beginning.

Throughout my search and in all the documents and books I have read, I have attempted to understand the inner souls of our founders, their families, their philosophies, their beliefs and their hopes. It saddens me greatly, that I did not have this book to read prior to starting that great and rewarding adventure.

For it confirms what it has taken me a youthful lifetime to find out for myself and to develope an in depth understanding which I believe I have finally arrived at.

This book is the quentisential prerequisite to understanding the true American Dream, it's purpose and our founders original intentions in all their thoughts, words and deeds. American youth, parents, administrators, scholars, and politicians need this book to bring them back to the true founders path. That path based upon the realities of their understanding and not the falsehoods of our hypocritical scholars of today.

America's God and Country should be required reading in every single school room, every office building, every legal office and should sit on the bench beside every single Judge in this land. Especially the United States Supreme Court whom seem to have completely lost their way, their duty and their limits of interference. For it cast a disgusting shadow over the degeneracy of our Judical, legal and political system which have terribly gone far astray today.

I would recommend that this book, "America's God and Country" be the first book some one read prior to embarking upon an exploration of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution of the United States, the Northwest Ordinance and the Federalist Papers, all essential documents to our heritage. This book will without question, give the reader the preliminary and basic understanding from which all other issues flow.

After which a reading of some of those current books by William Bennett and other such authors will make much more sence. Without it's indespensible wisdom the reader has no foundation or superstructure form which to begin. It is the wisdom of the ages inculcated in a single book. A must read for anyone who seeks the truth.

While not exhaustive, this book is an excellent reference for reading what the founding fathers actually wrote and said! When you read their writings, there is no question left that they were thinking within the framework of Christianity and they could never have imagined this country with the current emphasis on separation of church and state.

The book is organized by names of people, so if you want to know what Washington, Adams, Jefferson, etc. said, just look them up. It's the kind of things that are omitted from modern text books and history books.

I also bought the CD rom version which lets you search by name, word, phrase, etc.

"America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations" is exactly as the title proclaims, a collection of quotations that refer to God and especially as related to America. William Federer has done an excellent job of collection these quotations, documenting his sources, and giving some background on the individuals. That does not mean that there are not some curious quirks in the book. For example, for many of the people quoted he has included a small picture of them. However, at the entry for William Henry Seward, who was Secretary of State under Lincoln, there is no picture of Seward, but one of Lincoln.

Entries are listed alphabetically by the person being quoted. Which is great if you are looking up a quote by someone in particular like Abraham Lincoln. What if you don't know who made a quote but want to look it up by subject? No problem, as the author has also included a subject index at the back of the book.

This is an excellent book and a recommended resource for those who might be looking for a particular quote from a founding father, court, state constitution, or more modern person such as Martin Luther King, Jr. However, it should be understood that it many not accurately portray the complete attitudes of our nation at any given time. If someone from another country were to read the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. and conclude from these words that the United States was a haven of peace in the 1960's with non-violence being the rule we would all be quick to point out how wrong they were. However, there are no quotes in this book from that time period that would indicate otherwise. This is true to the author's stated intent - these are quotes about "America's God and Country" and any other items are not included. To realize that a conclusion like the one about the United States during the time of Martin Luther King, Jr. is completely a farce and still race to make the same conclusion about our Founding Fathers is ludicrous. And yet, I see that as the greatest problem with this book; people will use it for the purpose of "proving" that the United States was based on a Judeo-Christian philosophy without any consideration of the social context, habits, or other writers, statesmen, or leaders of the time.

Still, I rank it a highly recommended read as the author has done an excellent job of doing just what he purposed to do with the book. Well researched, well documented, and well organized it should be in most libraries.