Another American history book? Well, yeah. They are always among my favorites.
But this one is a new favorite favorite!
For one thing, I love Michael Medved’s writing. This is my first time to read one of his books, and his writing style is incredibly engaging.
But while I’ve read books before that talked about God’s hand in the history of America, The American Miracle shared stories I had never heard before, and it was meticulously researched and exceptionally well-documented.
And I appreciated the way Medved didn’t try to whitewash the past or somehow justify the darker aspects of American history. In fact, in the book he says,
“The evidence for divine providence doesn’t prove that America is perfect, but it does strongly suggest that America is no accident. An isolated instance of fortunate coincidence or eerie congruence may count as an anomaly. But a long chain of seemingly haphazard but consistently beneficial occurrences suggests something else entirely — a pattern or, more accurately, a design.”
It’s hard to pore over the evidence Medved offers and conclude there was no designer at work among some of the early colonists, in the miraculous protection and promotion of George Washington, or in the life and presidency of Abraham Lincoln. The American Miracle details one incident after another from American history that is just too remarkable to dismiss as mere coincidence.
And I love Medved’s take on what we should learn from God’s providence in the story of our nation:
“Viewing the rise of our country as a divinely directed American miracle doesn’t mean the United States counts as flawless. What it does signify is that we’re specially called to correct our flaws, and to strive more consciously toward justice and decency than other societies.”
