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I wanted to share some thoughts with you today regarding The Coming Revolution: Signs from America’s Past that Signal Our Nation’s Future, by Richard G. Lee. At it’s most basic level the book is a history primer for the period beginning at Jamestown at 1601 and ending at the Constitutional Convention which then fast-forwards a couple of centuries to make application of lessons learned in those early days to where we find ourselves today as a nation. Realizing that the word “revolution” can have some frightening and even militaristic connotations such is not the case as it is used by Dr. Lee.

Since it is a rather brief read at 212 pages of text it does not go into explicit historical detail but does provide a decent overview. However, even with it’s brevity the book is important at a couple of levels. If you are someone who has bought into the current revisionist claptrap peddled so commonly today that the founders were mainly secularists with a few Deists thrown in for good measure whose desire was to found a secular republic then this book will be either eye-opening or infuriating depending on your approach. If, on the other hand, you do understand the religious moorings upon which this country was founded then this will be either a healthy review or good illustrative material for your own apologetic work.

Dr. Lee is a pastor and approaches our history from a decidedly Christian perspective. While I happen to think that is a correct bias from which to approach the material it is a bias nonetheless. There are a couple to weakness that the book suffers from. First, it assumes at least a basic level of historical knowledge. While that is understandable we live in a time in which that may be a bit of an idealistic expectation as the author himself points out in the text. My second complaint, which I found to be a bit more glaring, regards the author’s documentation. Even though there are twelve pages of footnotes there is still much that is claimed for which primary source crediting would have been very helpful especially if one would hope to use the material in any type of an authoritative research setting.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book overall. It is a quick and relatively easy read. While the current administration is referred to, as well at the Tea Party, they are both approached in a fair manner. The reader comes away from the reading with a sense of both gravity and hopefulness. Whether as a historical review or a badly needed education this is a book I could highly recommend.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com http://BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”