We the People by Juan Williams

I have found myself having a very hard time writing a review for the People by Juan Williams.   Let me first by saying this is a thick book. Four hundred and fifty-three pages full of information. Or more like Juan Williams’s opinion. I was really excited to escape into history and our heritage but was sadly let down. After reading two hundred pages and then the last fifty pages I decided I just couldn’t go back to reading the rest of it. Instead of reading the rest of the pages, I decided to skim the pages.

Why did I not read the whole book word for word? Well, to me , We the People is very wordy and stale. The reason I feel it is stale is because there isn’t any personality in it. It just, here are some facts and my opinion. If you have ever read Bill O’Reilly’s books such as Killing Lincoln or Killing Reagan they are extremely well written and they have personality in it. I was not once bored. With Williams, on the other hand, I had a hard time not drifting off and thinking about other things. I could not stay focus because it kept making me lose interest in it. It could be because that is just how Juan Williams is. Another thing about this book is, don’t expect it to be in order from when America started to today. This book is written in essay form. Every chapter is a different topic. I make a list of the topics of each chapter. Don’t get me wrong there is a lot of great information in this book. Such as chapter six,

            “Milton Friedman who believed small-government, free-market approach which Juan Williams states in the book that it puts him in the line with the thinking of Founding Father and former president Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson favored a federal government operating under a theory often described as ‘a government that governs least governs best.’ Or, as Friedman told Playboy in 1973, “I think the government solution to a problem s usually as bad as the problem and very often makes the problem worse.’ (p. 103) Friedman predicted that government efforts to create jobs with federal spending would lead to inflation that would consequently throw the economy into a downward spiral. When the economy went into just such a recession in the late 1970s, Americans acknowledged that Friedman’s predictions had been absolutely correct. (p.106) Juan Williams states, when conservatives rail against President Obama’s national healthcare plan, Friedman is cited as the economist who made the case for maximum individual choice free of government interference. (p.107).”

Again, I learned some things from reading what I read, but I mainly learned more of what Juan Williams opinion is more than anything. I would recommend reading this book, but I would suggest checking it out at the library first and if you like it then purchase it.

Here are the Topics of each chapter:

• Chapter 1- The Founding Fathers and Modern America
• Chapter 2- The Great American Melting Pot- JFK, Ted Kennedy, and the Immigration Reform that Changed America
• Chapter 3- The Living Constitution- Earl Warren, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King Jr., Lyndon Johnson, and the Fight for Civil Rights
• Chapter 4- Broken Windows, Urban Crime, and Hard Data- Bill Bratton and Modern Policing
• Chapter 5- “No Apologies, No Regrets” – General William Westmoreland and the Rebirth of the U.S. Military
• Chapter 6- It’s the Economy, Stupid- Milton Friedman’s New Math of Free Markets, Big Business, and Small Taxes
• Chapter 7- Liberty and Justice For All- Eleanor Roosevelt and the Fight for Universal Human Rights
• Chapter 8- the Bridge and Tunnel Crowd- Robert Moses, William Levitt, and the American City
• Chapter 9- “Keep the Boys Happy”- George Meany, Labor Unions, and the Rise of the Middle Class.
• Chapter 10- One Nation Under God- Billy Graham and the Power of the Christian Right
• Chapter 11- Girls to Women to your Boss- Betty Friedman and American Feminism
• Chapter 12- The Power of Diplomacy- Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, and the Opening of China
• Chapter 13- One-Third of a Nation- Pat Moynihan and the War on Poverty
• Chapter 14- Equal Protection Under the Law- Harry Hay, Ed Meese, and the Remaking of the Judicial System
• Chapter 16- The Social Safety Net- Social Security, Medicare, and Robert Ball
• Chapter 17- Silent Spring- Rachel Carson and the Environmental Movement
• Chapter 18- A New Beginning- Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson, and the Fight for Racial Equality
• Chapter 19- the Right to Bear Arms- Charlton Heston and the NRA

More About the Book:  Click Here

About the Author: 

Juan Williams, one of America’s leading journalists, is a political analyst for Fox News, a regular panelist on Fox Broadcasting’s Sunday morning public affairs program, “Fox News Sunday,” and a columnist for FoxNews.com and for The Hill. He hoasted NPR’s Talk of the Nation and has anchored Fox News Channel’s weekend daytime news coverage. A former senior correspondent and political analyst for National Public Radio, he is the author of the bestselling book Enough; the critically acclaimed biography Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary; and the national bestseller Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965, the companion volume to the critically acclaimed television series. During his 21-year career at The Washington Post, Williams served as an editorial writer, op-ed columnist, and White House reporter. His articles have appeared in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Time,Newsweek, Fortune, The Atlantic Monthly, Ebony, Gentlemen’s Quarterly, and The New Republic.

“I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.”