Humility

America's founding fathers were determined to create a republic that would avoid the fate of ancient Rome. They believed humility -- the virtue absent from ancient notions of greatness -- would save the new nation from the self-aggrandizement that marked the Roman empire. In Humility, Dr. David J. Bobb traces the "crooked line" of humility in political thought, from Socrates to Augustine, from Machiavelli to Lincoln. What emerges is a pioneering philosophical portrait of this quiet virtue in America's political history. With verve, imagination, and authority, Bobb reveals the story of how humility has been indispensable to America's survival -- and its success. Without humility, hard-won through trials and temptations: George Washington might be remembered as the man who crowned himself king; Abraham Lincoln could have broken faith with the Constitution and become a dictator; and Frederick Douglass might never have gained the healthy pride that made him a champion of equality for all Americans. The Americans profiled here -- Washington, Lincoln, Douglass, along with James Madison and Abigail Adams -- demonstrate that greatness and humility are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they need each other. Humility serves as the guardrail to greatness, preventing it from going off the cliff. Now at the edge of a cliff created by the arrogance and bluster of our current political age, America has discarded the vision of the founders. As Bobb argues, we must rediscover humility if there is to be an American future. America is not Rome -- yet. - Jacket flap. Dr. David J. Bobb traces the "crooked line" that is the history of humility in political thought. From Socrates to Augustine to Machiavelli to Lincoln, passionate opinions about the humble ruler are literally all over the map. Having shown classical, medieval, and Christian ideas of humility to be irreconcilable, Dr. Bobb asserts that we as a nation are faced with a difficult choice. A choice we cannot put off any longer. - Publisher.