The Glory and the Dream

Book recommendation:
William Manchester was a writer and historian. He served as a Marine in the Pacific in WWII. He wrote a book titled “Glory and the Dream,” a history of 20th century America. But it was the history that we were not taught in High School. It completely changed my thinking about who we are and how we came to be. The quote (below) I have carried with me for decades.

About the quote. I know that I am a privileged “Old White Guy,” but I hope these lines resonant for anyone who worries about democracy. To live in a democracy requires us to be tough and educated: No safe spaces. There is despicable speech that is legal, and there is illegal speech. We need to know the difference.

Here is what he wrote:

"But if liberty is to signify anything substantive, it must also be extended to the last limits of the endurable, shielding under its broad tent the genuinely unpopular champions of causes which the majority regards as reprehensible. Any people can cheer an Eisenhower, a MacArthur, a John Glenn, a Neil Armstrong; it takes generosity of spirit to suffer the Weathermen who hated LBJ, the birchers who baited JFK, the liberty Leaguers who heckled FDR."

(I do wonder what he would think of us now)