A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES,...

A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, edited by Richard D. Heffner (Mentor: $5.99). Heffner has compiled a well-chosen anthology of source materials, from the Declaration of Independence to Ronald Reagan’s Inaugural addresses, that should be required reading for all Americans. Even a superficial reading of the Constitution reveals that the Founding Fathers did not envision a government composed of an imperial President and an adversarial Congress. (Nor do the sections devoted to the conduct of foreign policy mention the “neat ideas” of a rogue Marine colonel in the White House basement.) As the debates over freedom of speech, the right to privacy, abortion rights, etc. intensify, it becomes increasingly valuable for citizens to read these original sources, rather than rely on superficial media encapsulations. In a reprinted speech from 1958, Edward R. Murrow astutely warned: “We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.”