The Irony of American History (Scribner Library of Contemporary Classics) (edit title/settings)

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Characters/People edit see section history

• Jefferson: Add a description of this character.

Quotes edit see section history

• “The aim of the constitution seems to be not so much to attain great common ends by securing a good government as to avert the evils which will flow not merely from a bad government but from any government strong enough to threaten the pre-existing communities and individual citizens”

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• “Power,” he wrote, “always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God’s service when it is violating all His laws.

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• Four such truths are especially underlined in The Irony of American History: the persistent sin of American Exceptionalism; the indecipherability of history; the false allure of simple solutions; and, finally, the imperative of appreciating the limits of power.

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• Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.

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• Modern man’s confidence in his virtue caused an equally unequivocal rejection of the Christian idea of the ambiguity of human virtue.

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• For the freedom of democracy makes for a fortunate confusion in defining the goal toward which history should move; and the distribution of power in a democracy prevents any group of world savers from grasping after a monopoly of power.

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• One of the most prolific causes of delusion about power in a commerical society is that economic power is more covert than political or military power.

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• Those who pretend to understand history’s direction and ultimate destination are, in his view, charlatans or worse.

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• We find it almost as difficult as the communists to believe that anyone could think ill of us, since we are as persuaded as they that our society is so essentially virtuous that only malice could prompt criticism of any of our actions.

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• We take, and must continue to take, morally hazardous actions to preserve our civilization. We must exercise our power. But we ought neither to believe that a nation is capable of perfect disinterestedness in its exercise, nor become complacent about particular degrees of interest and passion which corrupt the justice by which the exercise of power is legitimatized. Communism is a vivid object lesson in the monstrous consequences of moral complacency about the relation of dubious means to supposedly good ends.

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• For the fact is that every nation is caught in the moral paradox of refusing to go to war unless it can be proved that the national interest is imperiled, and of continuing in the war only by proving that something much more than national interest is at stake.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• America
• Europe
• United States
• New England
• France
• Toqueville
• Russia
• Israel
• China
• Asia
• Condorcet
• Confucianism

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Reinhold Niebuhr (Author)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 973.91

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › History › Americas › United States › 20th Century
• Books › Religion & Spirituality › Authors, A-Z › ( N ) › Niebuhr, Reinhold
• Books › Nonfiction › Politics › International › Relations
• Books › History › Historical Study › Historiography
• Books › Nonfiction › Social Sciences › Political Science
• Books › Religion & Spirituality › Christianity
• Books › Nonfiction › Philosophy