Urged on by a powerful ideological and political movement, George W. Bush committed the United States to a quest for empire. American values and principles were universal, he asserted, and should guide the transformation of the world. Claes Ryn sees this drive for virtuous empire as the triumph of forces that in the last several decades acquired decisive influence in both the American parties, the foreign policy establishment, and the media.Public intellectuals like William Bennett, Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Michael Novak, Richard Perle, and Norman Podhoretz argued that the United States was an exceptional nation and should bring "democracy," "freedom," and "capitalism" to countries not yet enjoying them. Ryn finds the ideology of American empire strongly reminiscent of the French Jacobinism of the eighteenth century. He describes the drive for armed world hegemony as part of a larger ideological whole that both expresses and aggravates a crisis of democracy and, more generally, of American and Western civilization. America the Virtuous sees the new Jacobinism as symptomatic of America shedding an older sense of the need for restraints on power. Checks provided by the US Constitution have been greatly weakened with the erosion of traditional moral and other culture.

Urged on by a powerful ideological and political movement, George W. Bush committed the United States to a quest for empire. American values and principles were universal, he asserted, and should guide the transformation of the world. Claes Ryn sees this drive for virtuous empire as the triumph of forces that in the last several decades acquired decisive influence in both the American parties, the foreign policy establishment, and the media.Public intellectuals like William Bennett, Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Michael Novak, Richard Perle, and Norman Podhoretz argued that the United States was an exceptional nation and should bring "democracy," "freedom," and "capitalism" to countries not yet enjoying them. Ryn finds the ideology of American empire strongly reminiscent of the French Jacobinism of the eighteenth century. He describes the drive for armed world hegemony as part of a larger ideological whole that both expresses and aggravates a crisis of democracy and, more generally, of American and Western civilization. America the Virtuous sees the new Jacobinism as symptomatic of America shedding an older sense of the need for restraints on power. Checks provided by the US Constitution have been greatly weakened with the erosion of traditional moral and other culture.

America was founded as a republic, a collective nation of tightly knit families and autonomous communities, who relied upon each other to fulfill their needs and achieve their dreams. As never before, "Our Virtuous Republic" provides a comprehensive explanation to how and why our nation - once held together only by an empowering national identity - has now become increasingly dependent on a powerful, centralized government. Conservative academics and politicians have failed to make a decisive argument for our founding principles, which were born out of the blended wisdom of English common law, Natural Law and the Protestant ethic. Richard D. Baris, Creator and Editor of People's Pundit Daily, identifies the unique characteristics that define the traditional American identity; to which, the progressive narrative has attached an unsubstantiated, "backward" stigma. Past conservative arguments have focused only on the impact of progressive legal reforms, such as the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments, but beneath this structural shift is a deeper problem of values. They have overshadowed the true danger posed to Americans from big government; its strong, innate ability to destroy the human connection, which is threatening to "fundamentally transform" American citizens into a people that the Constitution was never designed to govern. Baris uses an all-encompassing approach, tapping history, philosophy, psychology, economics, and even science to deconstruct the progressive argument to its regressive core. Breaking through the superficial partisanship, he explains how our human nature interacts with the different elements of each political philosophy in American politics, and how it is exploited by politicians, special interest and bureaucrats. The evidence, in total, points to one conclusion. There is a Natural Law that illuminates our path to human happiness, empowerment and well-being. American history tells a story about the natural power of close, intimate human relationships. Our Founding Fathers designed the American social contract in accordance with their belief in a Natural Law that - when observed - ensures that we all have the opportunity to achieve the highest state of being. Honoring the terms of that social contract is the true path to progress..

Virtues are the foundation of Western civilization. They are ancient. Their value and significance cannot be overstated. Virtues afford incredible beauty to the lives of all who practice them, and the society that honors, respects, and teaches virtue to each generation is a society that flourishes. Sadly in our rush into 21st Century modernism, America has overlaid our foundation of sturdy virtues with high sounding principles, seemingly noble but empty values, and an anemic Christianity. These are flimsy substitutes for wisdom, courage, hope, love, and all the other virtues that are the true foundation of America. In One Nation Under God, The Virtues That Made America, we will meet virtuous men and women, and hear how their stories contributed to the making of America. Certainly, we will meet some of America’s Founding Fathers, but we will also hear the stories of common everyday folks, whose virtue is the mortar that binds together the nation’s foundation. It’s time for a new generation of Americans to hear these true stories and know that the virtues made America.

One Nation Under God, The Virtues That Made America tells true stories of how virtue contributed to America's founding and growth as a nation.

Since the early days of the republic, Americans have recognized Thomas Jefferson's distinctive role in helping to shape the American national character. As Founder and statesman, Jefferson thought broadly about the virtues Americans would need to cultivate in order to preserve and perfect their experiment in republican self-government. Now in an age preoccupied with rights and divided over questions of character in public and private life, Jefferson can help us to think more clearly about our most urgent concerns. American Virtues is the first comprehensive analysis of Jefferson's moral and political philosophy in over twenty years and the first ever to focus exclusively on the full range of moral, civic, and intellectual virtues that together form the American character. It asks what kind of character Americans as a people must cultivate to ensure their freedom and happiness and how we as a free society can nurture moral and intellectual excellence in our citizens and statesmen. Beginning with the Declaration of Independence, Jean Yarbrough explores how Jefferson's conception of rights helps to form the American character. In subsequent chapters, she examines the moral sense virtues of justice and benevolence; the "agrarian" virtues of industry, moderation, patience, self-reliance, and independence; patriotism and modern republicanism; slavery and agrarian vice; the effect of commerce on character; the virtues connected with private property; the civic virtues of vigilance and spirited participation; the meaning of virtue and happiness for women; the virtues of republican statesmen; the place of the Epicurean virtues of wisdom and friendship in liberal republicanism; and piety and the secularized virtues of charity, toleration, and hope. In broadening the examination of virtue to include not only civic or republican virtue but the whole range of moral and intellectual excellence that perfect the individual character, American Virtues moves beyond the liberal-republican debates and makes a fresh contribution to the Jeffersonian literature.