Nothing to Apologize for

Western Civilization transformed the world through reason, freedom, progress, individualism, ingenuity, and the great experiment known as America. America is not all good, but we're losing what is good because we're afraid to claim it. As though somehow it's shameful to honor such an imperfect country. But the beauty of America is that we're founded on perfect ideals. And as short of those ideals as we sometimes fall, we never stop striving to attain them. That's what we need to honor. That's what we don't want to lose.

Yes, we had slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation. We also had the Civil Rights Movement, possible only in Western culture because we value critical self-reflection and progress. Yes, we had rapacious capitalism, Robber Barons, and child labor. We also have capitalism that has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system ever invented. Yes, we had legal racism, sexism, and homophobia. We also have human rights that, once attained, are never lost, unlike non-Western cultures where human rights--if they exist--are always fragile. In Nothing to Apologize For: The Truth About Western Civilization, Donna Carol Voss makes the case for Western civilization and especially for America, its pearl of great price. It is a clear-eyed love letter that gives us a chance to ask,

ARE WE REALLY READY TO LOSE WHAT WE HAVE LEFT OF WESTERN CULTURE?

DO WE REALLY REALIZE WHAT THAT WILL MEAN?

It's not too late. Yet.