This book, which delivers a hard and measured optimism from its opening page, could not be timelier than at this present juncture in America’s history. Robert Pollock’s America the Beautiful is a gem of positive thought regarding immigration, and more broadly, regarding America’s rightful direction in the decades ahead.
Pollock provides a stirring introduction, tracing the actual roots of America from pre-colonial times through the Revolution and the two and a half centuries that have followed. He then offers, together with his own commentary, a wealth of flesh-and-blood testimony from actual US immigrants, mostly recent, who describe their trials and triumphs in this new land that lay waiting.
In this book is an affirmation of the spirit that gave rise to America, a land conceived by men flawed and fallible, who yet accomplished something that continues to inspire wonder the world over. America the Beautiful affirms, front to back, what many today seem to have forgotten – that America’s promise is both great and mutual, offering opportunity to those willing to honor it with their own labor and civic integrity.
Germany, Russia, Korea, Ethiopia, Morocco – the author draws global testimony from venturers who arrived on these shores in search of freedom and opportunity denied them in places they left behind. Each story reveals a personality imbued with talent, ambition, and gratitude – a man or woman who wishes to give back in turn to a nation that has amply rewarded an unflagging effort.
This work exhibits deep appreciation of what our founders believed, and what they endured in fighting back from the brink of defeat to bring forth a new nation. It is written essentially in honor of their sacrifice, and innumerable sacrifices that have followed. A long-time historian and educator, a Viet Nam combat veteran, Dr. Pollock gives us a book that is uplifting and unabashedly patriotic. In an era marked by cynicism and moral chaos, he offers due praise to a nation forged in ice and blood that became a living miracle.
