A Certain Idea of America by Peggy Noonan
A Quick-hit Book Review
NB: these reviews are just a few quick thoughts on books I’ve recently finished. For context on my broader taste in books please see my Goodreads Page.
It’s interesting to think of the different worlds Peggy Noonan’s A Certain Idea of America might have been published in. Released on November 19th 2024, there were four versions of America I could imagine:
If Kamala won, we’d have witnessed a further entrenchment of wokeism and progressivism as the movement consolidated itself around a potential two term president. In that case A Certain Idea of America would have been dismissed by the fourth estate as a relic from a bygone era.
If the election had been closely contested, and pessimism in the American Experiment brought to a fresh nadir, it might have seemed a nostalgic whisper from a distant past. What good are these Dreams of America when we are so fractured we can only see our present nightmares?
In the not-impossible event of a civil war over a contested election, it’s hard to say whether anything written could be relevant while we drew battle lines and prepared for the worst. Talk of America’s Better Angels would have felt irrelevant at best.
But in the world which we inhabit, the audience for A Certain Idea of America is significantly larger than any of us might have thought on the morning of November 5 2024. If this election taught us anything it is that Americans reject the notion that we are uniformly racist, that we are bigoted, that our entire history is the story of subjugation and rogue capitalism. We no longer wish to see our flaws, though many, as the sole force of our national story.
A Certain Idea of America exemplifies the current spirit of American Revivalism. We may have flaws, but as a whole we are earnest and hardworking, committed to the values of liberty, equality, and prosperity for all. Noonan’s essays “Richard Nixon’s Example of Sanity in Washington,” “History Gives George H.W. Bush His Due,” and “America Needs More Gentlemen” remind us that, within our recent history, there are examples of great statesmen and inspiring leadership and the ability for us all to hold ourselves to our own highest standards.
Nor does Noonan shy away from her own mistakes. It’s refreshing to read a mainstream journalist admit faults in her logic over Covid (“Our New Coronavirus Reality”), the right-wing treatment of Clinton in 1998 (“Reflections on Impeachment, Twenty Years Later”), and the haste of the post-9/11 rush to war (“What Might Have been at Tora Bora”). When Noonan tasks her readers with acting in ways that honor our founding ideals, these admissions of fault are a very real way to show the kind of leadership we should expect of ourselves and our thought-leaders.
Most striking to me are the essays that highlight the beating heart of America. Amidst so much politicization across the entire spectrum it is refreshing to be reminded of the power of love (“Give Thanks for Taylor Swift”), the power of bipartisan compromise and compassion (“A Genius for Friendship,” “These Generals Were the Closest of Friends”), and the true power of holding yourself to a higher standard and acting with national responsibility always in mind (“On the Death of a Queen”). Never one to deny my emotions when moved by art, I found myself dewy-eyed and warm of heart throughout this collection.
It's disturbingly easy to tear things down, to find something to hate, to amplify that hate so that it infests our body politic. Much more difficult is leading from a place of vulnerability, declaring “this is what I believe” and then standing strong as the countervailing winds of mediocrity and contempt try to tear you down. Over her career, Peggy Noonan has weathered many a politic storm and changing national landscape. A Certain Idea of America is the result of her fight, not just for America, but for her values as an American. It is inspiring to the end. 10/10.