The belief in “American Exceptionalism” is under attack, declares Larry Alex Taunton, an award-winning author, columnist, and cultural commentator. “A battle rages for the heart and soul of America.”
For Taunton, the question comes down to: Is there a better place to live than America?
To explore the idea of “national greatness,” Taunton went on a global odyssey, visiting some 26 countries. He records his discoveries in his new book, AROUND THE WORLD IN (MORE THAN) 80 DAYS: DISCOVERING WHAT MAKES AMERICA GREAT AND WHY WE MUST FIGHT TO SAVE IT.
If all of this sounds like a slog over some serious philosophic and political terrain, it is, but Taunton’s wry humor leavens the loaf.
In a chapter on Sweden, for example, the author hears, on a boat tour of Stockholm, a litany of Swedish accomplishments from his guides: “America? We discovered that. Skype? We invented it. The flat screen? You’re welcome. IKEA? You guessed it.”
Taunton’s mix of socio-political observations and cheeky wit in AROUND THE WORLD IN (MORE THAN) 80 DAYS opens the book up to a large and diverse group of readers.
The online publication The Federalist says of Taunton’s work: “The social elites want evangelicals to be as dumb as they suspect they are. But when a person comes along who proves that tale false, which Taunton clearly does…they simply don’t know what to do.”
In advance praise for AROUND THE WORLD IN (MORE THAN) 80 DAYS, Paul Reid, co-author with William Manchester, of THE LAST LION: WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL: DEFENDER OF THE REALM, 1940-1965 observes:
Larry Taunton—historian, columnist, and a man of abiding Christian faith—traveled (often at great risk to himself) to twenty-six nations in order to hold a mirror up to the United States of America and ask: Is America Good and is America Great? Mark Twain did much the same more than a century ago. Twain’s and Taunton’s conclusions are identical: There is no place—literally No Place—like home. “Around the World in (More Than) 80 Days is fabulous.” It’s going on my shelf next to “The Innocents Abroad.”
AROUND THE WORLD IN (MORE THAN) 80 DAYS is a book for all seasons.
“America—the freest, most tolerant and inclusive nation on earth—is under siege by radicals who make no effort to conceal their determination to destroy it. Larry Alex Taunton has provided patriotic Americans with a powerful weapon to defeat our enemies. Buy this book to arm yourself for the defense of your freedoms. Buy a second copy for a friend.”
— David Horowitz, author of Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America
“To truly understand how and why America is exceptional you could travel to country after country and see for yourself. You might even want to write a brilliant book about it! But lucky for you my friend, Larry Taunton has done all the traveling for you—think of the money you’ve saved!—and has written that brilliant book, making the case so clear that you owe it to yourself to grab a copy and read it! Please do!”
— Eric Metaxas, host of The Eric Metaxas Show; author of Bonhoeffer and If You Can Keep It
“The problem with being an American is that familiarity too often breeds contempt because we see our faults up close and take our virtues and blessings for granted. Larry Alex Taunton has provided a cure by lifting us up out of America, and taking us on a long and insightful tour of the world to see how other places actually stack up. Take the tour with him, and gain some very much needed perspective. You may find—as he did—there’s no place like home.”
— Benjamin Wiker, Ph.D., author of 10 Books That Screwed Up the World
“Larry Taunton—historian, columnist, and a man of abiding Christian faith—traveled (often at great risk to himself) to twenty-seven nations in order to hold a mirror up to the United States of America and ask: Is America Good and is America Great? Mark Twain did much the same more than a century ago. Twain’s and Taunton’s conclusions are identical: There is no place—literally No Place—like home. Around the World in (More Than) 80 Days is fabulous. It’s going on my shelf next to The Innocents Abroad.”
— Paul Reid, co-author with William Manchester, The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965
Amazon → https://amzn.to/2GCuGGY
Michael Moore style America-bashing is very much in style. Whether it is the New York Times declaring as they did in a headline: “America is not great”; Black Lives Matter and Antifa toppling statues or burning cities; or former president Barack Obama apologizing for American “arrogance,” it is one side of a battle that rages for the heart and soul of America. Trump’s White House has become the flashpoint in a winner-take-all contest featuring two very different visions for America.
One group sees America’s wealth, power, and influence as an accident of history. For them, the idea of “American Exceptionalism” is not only dead, it is offensive. These people never tire of lecturing us about how out-of-step America is with the rest of the world and how she needs to get with it. America, they say, is bad for the world. Moreover, where America is exceptional—a deep suspicion of socialism and environmentalism; strongly Christian in a post-Christian world; and alone patriotic among Western nations swept up in a globalist dream—is where America is at her worst and must change.
Others want to preserve America’s uniqueness, her exceptionalism, which is anchored in a Judeo-Christian heritage that has given rise to her laws, art, literature, culture and place in the world as a refuge from just the types of governments the Left idealizes. Proponents of this vision would readily acknowledge that America’s global influence has, at times, been evil, but this is, they would argue, the result of an agenda that has nothing whatsoever to do with the principles upon which America was founded. On the contrary, that agenda—championed by the Left and epitomized by America’s bullying of Third World countries to adopt permissive abortion and LGBTQ+ policies—is at odds with those principles.
The war between these competing visions is played-out every day in local and national government, in our courts of law, in schools and universities, in media, and even in families. Listening to this cultural debate—it is not only inescapable, it is tearing our country apart—it occurred to me that the vision advocated by those who would burn America to the ground Ferguson-style presupposes there are better places in the world to live.
Are there? Were Bruce Springsteen to leave the country as he recently promised if Trump is re-elected, where would he go? What if you could put these questions to the test?
That’s precisely what I did.
I did what French political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville did in 1831—but in reverse. Where de Tocqueville came to America to search out the source of her strength, I went to the world—yes, I literally went around the world in (more than) 80 days—to see how America stacks-up to those countries the Left would hold up as models. Should America annihilate her borders, surrender her sovereignty, and be remade in the image of a secular European socialist democracy or is American Exceptionalism not only real, but worthy of preservation?
Join the expedition and the conversation as I shoot AK-47s with old Viet Cong in Vietnam; discuss politics with Marx and Lenin impersonators in Red Square; hide from Fulani Herdsmen Militia in Nigeria; dine with infamous atheist philosopher Peter Singer in his hometown of Melbourne, Australia; and view the wreckage of civil wars, terrorism, and ideological extremism all over the world. What did the journey teach us? Should we throw a log on the great American bonfire and punish Lady Liberty for her sins, or is America worth saving?
Larry Alex Taunton is an American author, columnist, and
cultural commentator. A frequent television and radio guest, he
has appeared on CNN, CNN International, Fox News, Al Jazeera
America, and BBC. You can find his columns on issues of faith
and culture in The Atlantic, USA Today, CNN.com, and The Blaze.
Taunton has been quoted by Rush Limbaugh, The New York Times,
The Chicago Tribune, TIME, Vanity Fair, and NPR, among others.
He is the author of “The Grace Effect” and “The Faith of
Christopher Hitchens.”
Larry Alex Taunton is an American author, columnist, and cultural commentator. A frequent television and radio guest, he has appeared on CNN, CNN International, Fox News, Al Jazeera America, and BBC. You can find his columns on issues of faith and culture in The Atlantic, USA Today, CNN.com, and The Blaze. Taunton has been quoted by Rush Limbaugh, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, TIME, Vanity Fair, and NPR, among others. He is the author of “The Grace Effect” and “The Faith of Christopher Hitchens.”
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