Rediscovering America: Great American Revivals

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Crystal clear coverage of The Drew Mariani Show is made possible in part by Charity Mobile, charitymobile.com.

SPEAKER_2 (0:10)

Rediscovering America, understanding the ideas, history, and faith that shaped a nation. This is The Drew Mariani Show on Relevant Radio.

Ed Morrissey (0:27)

Taking your calls at 888-914-9149, 888-914-9149.

We are going to spend the next hour talking about American history, American individualism, which I think is an interesting topic in light of some of the things that we've discussed today. And we might get into that. The American identity as rugged individualism in rugged individualism, but also in community. And there's all sorts of really great ways that we can explore this. And of course, we are exploring it today with Dr. Susan Hansen. She's an associate professor of history at the University of Dallas. And Susan, it's great to have you back.

Susan Hanssen (1:15)

Thank you for having me on, Ed.

Ed Morrissey (1:17)

Well, as always, I love these deep dives into American history, American philosophy. And I actually think that this is the type of thing that we don't get enough of as adults, certainly. But I actually think this isn't the type of thing that we don't get enough of in our education process. And I think there's a lot of these types of values and philosophy that just simply haven't been covered for a lot of people. And I think people need to rediscover it.

Susan Hanssen (1:51)

Yeah, I think that American history is really so rich. A lot of times people think that, you know, in comparison to some European countries, that American history is thin, is short, is shallow, you know, that it's kind of all one flavor. And that's really not true. It's a really rich tapestry. And I think that it's worth exploring. And I think that it really helps people to understand the context in which they're living and what are the opportunities that there are for reviving American culture.

You know, a lot of times I talk to people and they're so down about where American culture is going.

And then as soon as you put it in comparative perspective with other countries, you suddenly realize that there are so many reasons to hope in America that we still have so many opportunities and that it's worth fighting for. So I really do encourage people to explore American history.

You began by talking about, kind of contrast between American rugged individualism, and then also American communities, right? And the sense of Americans being very neighborly, having a lot of trust, we're a high trust culture compared to many countries.

And I was just talking to my students today about an experience just before 9-11, actually, just before the September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 An experience that I had biking around New York City. And if you bike down the Hudson River on the west of the island, you're biking alongside of all of the yuppies who work on Wall Street, and they're all in their own bubble with their headphones on, listening to their own music, and totally into their fitness routine, whatever it is. But then, as you go past the harbor at the base of the island, and then turn back up the East River. Now, as you come up the East River, you're going past Chinatown, and little Italy, and little Puerto Rico, and the Jewish section of town, and you just see families outside barbecuing. You see tons of children, small kids on tricycles, on basketball courts where people are trying to play basketball. And it's a kind of chaos of family and food, right? Different food ways, cultural ways. And so it's really impressive to see that with American freedom, you can become a lone individualist, right? But you can also foster community, and foster the kind of religious, and moral, and civic virtues that make you an upstanding individual member of a community, right? A pillar in the community. So I think that we have to realize that American culture is complex, and people have used their freedom in very different ways, but we have been very blessed.

Ed Morrissey (4:54)

I agree with this. I do think that one of the blessings that we've had is having the right organizing principles for this, right? And the way I, the reason why I bring this up is just in contrast to some of the topics that we brought up today. In particular, the way that people are organizing around violence in today's politics or in today's culture.

The Lindsey Clancy case is the most recent example, but also the person who shot Brian Thompson in the back, Luigi Mangione and Tyler Robinson who shot Charlie Kirk. I don't know that's been as much around Tyler Robinson, but certainly around Luigi Mangione and Lindsey Clancy, there's been this impulse to organize around nihilism, I guess, is a good way of putting this. And it's been disturbing because clearly, people want to organize around something, and clearly they are lost in what to organize around. And I know the framework of today is the three great awakenings in American history. And I think I want to tackle that in terms of the organizing impulse, I don't know if it's an intention with individualism. I think it's not necessarily intention with that, but I think what we're seeing today is an organizing principle that is misdirected, right? It's warped. And the organizing principles that we're going to talk about, the three great awakenings that we want to discuss today, we're based on foundations that are oriented to the public good.