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by Stan Kaczmarek (Author)
As our nation recognizes its 250th anniversary, many Americans feel anger, confusion, and a reluctance to engage with one another-echoes of the tensions present at the country's founding. The Age of Understanding is written in the spirit of Thomas Paine's Common Sense: an invitation to reflect, to question, to recognize the forces that divide us, and to rediscover what binds us together.
This book offers a path to acknowledge viewpoints that challenge us while staying alert to those who seek to manipulate us. It argues that every one of us needs to pull the country back from the forces tearing at its seams. And it reminds us of the enduring promise of America, renewed through the conscious act of understanding.
The book is for you if you consider yourself a progressive, moderate or conservative and want to reconnect with family or friends estranged by politics. It's for you if you avoid political conversations altogether. It's for you if you believe your perspective is always right and those who disagree are always wrong. It's for you if you always vote for a Party rather than a candidate.
This book is for all of us-the diverse tapestry that is the United States.
When We the People reclaim the power of understanding-of ourselves and one another-we strengthen the foundation of our republic. We empower our representatives to rediscover their better angels and act with the courage worthy of the founders who, as Benjamin Franklin warned, gave us "a Republic, if you can keep it."
The Age of Understanding offers small, practical steps to help restore a dynamic, informed, and genuinely engaged American democracy.
