If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty

From the very beginning, Eric Metaxas, writing from a Christian worldview, engages the reader with reminiscent historical accounts and thoughts of patriotism. He skillfully brings you along on his own eye-opening journey of discovery his deep and reverential awe for America. He begins with both a charge to educate and also to be an active participant in the keeping of the trust that has been given us through the founding of the United States of America. He reminds us of what it means to love our country and what it means to be an American. Fascinating and detailed biographical sketches and quotations from America’s founding fathers and from other significant leaders of our country are woven throughout in Metaxas-style masterful storytelling with skillful command of language and vocabulary, along with colorful and vivid descriptions. He delivers impassioned pleas to recover the spirit of patriotism, to recall biblical virtues, remember our responsibilities, recall both the good and bad of our past, and most importantly, to take action in doing our part to preserve America for ourselves, our future, and the world. Eric Metaxas builds a strong argument for the multi-dimensional components of the “how and why” our country, Constitution, and government was established, and then he dissects the fundamental aspects of virtue and leadership that contributed to its founding. Heroes are extolled and remembered for their lack of selfishness and pride and for their desire only for the good of our country. This book is an enjoyable and moving read, written intellectually but on a level that it easily comprehendible. Metaxas builds a strong case for the charge of keeping and defending America, and I made copious notes of his quote-worthy statements. Many of the biographical sketches will be familiar if you have read his books Amazing Grace and Seven Men and the Secret of Their Greatness, but they are, nonetheless, crucial to the complete understanding of the concepts he puts forth in this book. Once again, Metaxas delivers a compelling read. Written by Monica Flippin

This book is great! It should be required reading for any voter. This book explains the deeper and unknown critical parts of our democracy. These parts are the things most schools forget in the name of political correctness. This book will open up minds to new realities. What most people forget is that the founding fathers thought there was more to democracy than just voting and paying taxes. To put it in modern terms it is more than a purple finger to mark that you voted. Citizens needed to have certain values to make it work. Those values are so important it was there before the country started. The book shows that in great detail. The nation needs other things to keep man in check. As Ben Franklin said, " As nations become corrupt and vicious they have more need of masters." That master in other countries is the police state. Franklin found in his autobiography that "the secret to American Freedom was American virtue." That is checked here in America by an internal master in our hearts. John Adams said that, " The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue. He went on to say that if people did not have virtue in greater measure they would not have a liberty that would last. Eric Metaxas explains that to an average reader. He shows how the work of George Whitefield, before the country's inception set the ground. That revival he helped start gave America that virtue. America needed other things. A moral leadership is critical. Lack of that undermines citizen faith in the government. Metaxas also shows how it is important that people have a love for the country. That helps provide energy to keep things going forth in good times and bad. The book does what others don't. It shows why virtue is important. Why values keep man's sinful nature in check. The book shows that without a moral people our government is at stake.

arrived on time

Brilliant! Must Read

Gives a very clear exposition of what America was meant to be and, the document that created the United States of America, The Constitution. It is truly unique. Any one who truly loves and values liberty and freedom should read this even if they are not an American. Every American has a grave responsibility to keep this “republic” if they value liberty and freedom.

So much potential but ruined by being reductive to the point of trite.

This is an important book; in fact I would go so far to say that this is the best and most important book I have read this year. I would encourage all Americans to read this, and even for American parents to get their high-school-age children to read it. It’s actually remarkably easy reading, and I will be reading it again very soon. “If You Can Keep It,” is sub-titled “The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty,” and it gets its title from an encounter at the close of the American Constitutional Convention in 1787, when Benjamin Franklin emerged from the arduous but yet successful negotiations to be confronted by a woman who asked him what kind of government they were getting – a monarchy or a republic? “A republic, madam, if you can keep it,” was the reply. His words carried both satisfaction and warning. And the bulk of this book is unpacking the reasons for both of these sentiments. We are so used to hearing that America is a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” that the words don’t resonate the way they did at the Founding of the nation. The idea that people would actually govern themselves, and not be governed by others, was entirely new on the stage of history. Even ancient Greece, which introduced the idea of democracy, was not a true forebear of this experiment because those governments did not extend beyond the level of city-states, and by being sheer democracies could not guarantee liberty and justice for all, but only for the majority. The magnitude of Benjamin Franklin’s concern that from the outset, American liberty hung in the balance and could so easily be lost is far from obvious to us, as it was to Metaxas himself, until he learned as an adult the concept that was common currency at the time of the Founding, but in our day has all but disappeared from our conceptual frameworks and thus from our classrooms. This is the concept of “The Golden Triangle of Freedom, which goes like this: Freedom requires Virtue, Virtue requires Religion, and Religion requires Freedom.” You have a triangle with all three sides requiring the others to be sustained. If any one of them is lost or compromised, none of them can be sustained. Lest we think that this is nonsense, since we have freedom but have without harm jettisoned virtue and religion from the public square, we need to be reminded that freedom as understood by the Founders, is not licence. It is not the ability to do whatever you want, but the ability to do what you ought. If America really does require this “Golden Triangle of Freedom,” and if Freedom, Virtue, and Religion are nowhere to be found in contemporary culture, at least in the public square, then Metaxas is right to sound the alarm that America is in trouble. He reminds us that America and the ideals it embodies are not just for the benefit of Americans, but are for the benefit of the world. And so if they are lost, and America fundamentally changes into something unrecognizable to the Founders, everybody loses. It has become fashionable in the last fifty or so years to become critical of America while portraying patriotism as unsophisticated jingoism. But acknowledgement of America’s shortcomings, Metaxas argues, does not require viewing the country as irredeemable. And love of country need not, and indeed ought not, be uncritical. To love the good in someone encourages the object of that love to strive to be better. And to love the good in America encourages her to repent of her sins and strive harder to live up to her founding ideals. In America we have a republic if we can keep it. It is worth preserving, correcting, loving, and nurturing. It’s future hangs in the balance but Metaxas exudes the confidence that one by one, her citizens can recover the vision of Washington, Franklin, and the other Founders who left such a treasure as a trust to future generations.