Making Patriots

Walter Berns is the John M. Olin University Professor Emeritus at Georgetown University and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. His books include In Defense of Liberal Democracy, The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy, and Taking the Constitution Seriously.

"A profound book." - George F. Will "Thought-provoking and obviously heartfelt.... Berns's book is a brief but stirring hymn to America, not just as an idea but as a reality that moves the hearts of its citizens." - Michael Potemra, National Review "This brief, eloquent book is a beautiful tribute to patriotism, a besieged civic virtue.... The purpose of civics courses in the past was to instill respect for the principles that formed America. The question now, Mr. Berns notes, is whether the private realm can take up the slack. We are all beneficiaries of patriotism. Whether we are continuing the necessary task of making patriots is the challenge this profound book invites us to ponder." - Roger Kimball, Wall Street Journal "Wise and penetrating.... With Making Patriots, Walter Berns has done his part to help us make patriots, but there is still the larger challenge out there, to find a voice that can poetically express our love of country in the age of e-mail, irony, and the market." - David Brooks, Weekly Standard "Berns's argument shines best... when discussing how Americans, led by Abraham Lincoln, the poet of patriotism, and Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist patriot, enriched patriotism by destroying slavery and expanding citizenship and democracy. He engages readers, especially conservatives, to think critically about patriotism's core values." - Library Journal "Berns understands, as so many political theorists do not, how demanding citizenship can be. 'No one is born loving his country,' he writes wisely; 'such love is not natural, but has to be taught or acquired." - Alan Wolfe, The New Republic