Jerry Combee
Forward to Freedom: the American Constitution and Humanity’s Struggle for Liberty is a fast-paced, informative, and inspiring account of the Constitution and its historical roots. It is a must read for American citizens. Since 1789, Americans have venerated their Constitution. As the oldest written constitution of any nation, it has also been much admired and emulated around the world. Unfortunately understanding of the principles of government contained in the Constitution and their historical roots are not well understood by many citizens, In the daily news, concepts such as separation of powers, checks and balances, limited government, enumerated powers, federalism, judicial review, the meaning of the First Amendment’s guarantees of religious liberty, and other constitutional principles frequently find their way into public policy debates and media commentary. It is essential that citizens correctly understand these principles and the history behind them if they are to be able to hold political leaders accountable for staying within the bounds of the Constitution. Many books have been written on the Constitution and its historical background. Forward to Freedom: The American Constitution and Humanity’s Struggle for Liberty Across the Ages, however, differs decisively from other works. First, it contends that for the Constitution’s historical background to be adequately understood, it is insufficient to examine America’s colonial and revolutionary period or even our English political and legal heritage such. The Constitution also reflects the influence of political ideas reaching back to the ancient Greeks and Romans and even earlier. Second, Forward to Freedom presents history not as a jumbled and ultimately meaningless mass of facts—as what Macbeth said of life, “a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing”—but as a process under the superintendence of Divine Providence. America’s Founding Fathers often spoke of Divine Providence, expressing the belief that God’s guiding hand can be discerned in America’s history. They believed that God had entrusted them with the opportunity to establish free government in America but also to advance the future of freedom for all mankind. Divine Providence is therefore an idea that must be taken as seriously as separation of powers and checks and balances, for example, if we are to understand the minds of the Founding Fathers.
