Jedediah Bila's Review of 'America By Heart'

'Heart,' like its author, will resonate with many Americans
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Excerpts from Jedediah Bila's review of America By Heart for Human Events:

When I pick up a book, the thing I want most is to feel that the author has invited me on a journey, one where I can see, hear, and almost touch the world the writer has awakened. Sarah Palin’s America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag does just that.

The writer’s voice is warm and welcoming. The tone is optimistic and patriotic. And the writing style is uncluttered and forthright. Palin presents the American values she holds dear through a blend of personal stories and excerpts from writings that have inspired her. Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, Milton Friedman, Abigail Adams, Margaret Thatcher, Booker T. Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, and Martin Luther King, Jr., are some of the historical figures whose words are brought to life through Palin’s text.

In Palin’s own words, America by Heart is “my view of America and what has made her great. It’s the ideas our country was founded on. It’s the strength of our families. It’s the grit of our national character. It’s our faith in God, how it has shaped our nation and continues to fortify us as a people.” She honors America’s Founders, our Declaration of Independence, and our Constitution through such reflections as “The difference, with our Constitution, is those three little words: We the people” and “The Constitution’s relationship to the family, then, was meant to be reciprocal: to depend upon the virtues of family life to make its system of government work, while protecting the freedom of families to create self-governing citizens.”

Palin declares “the fundamental wisdom of the Tenth Amendment,” discusses some of Hollywood’s positive and negative contributions in the way of American values, and highlights a new feminism that honors both our God-given rights and courageous founding feminists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She stresses the importance of a strong American work ethic that “gives you wings” and rejects a culture of entitlement...

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Woven through it all are her belief in American exceptionalism, her reverence for our military, her prioritization of personal responsibility, and her confidence in the fact that “The American people have a principled wisdom that all the lawyers and academics and schooled-up ‘experts’ in D.C. fail to appreciate.” Her profound faith shines through... And her love for her family and the bond they share is unquestionable...

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Finally, it is Sarah Palin’s character – the woman behind the political titles, TV spots, and public speeches – that one comes to know through America by Heart.

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- JP