“Smart, patriotic, and readable, this book is what our cynical culture needs.” — Pete Hegseth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Battle for the American Mind
America is full of inspiring heroes.
Greatness is not a chance—it is a choice. George Washington didn’t simply wake up as one of the greatest men in human history. His greatness was the sum of a lifetime of difficult and consequential choices.
In Lessons in Liberty, Jeremy S. Adams distills inspiring advice from the lives of extraordinary Americans from our past.
- George Washington’s lifelong struggle to conquer his temper makes him a model for self-help and self-improvement.
- Daniel Inouye was a beloved Japanese American senator who carried out daring missions in World War II, despite being subjected to discrimination by the very nation he decided to defend.
- Eleven-year-old Clara Barton’s role in nursing her injured brother back to health instilled the courage and ferocity that would later empower her to pioneer new nursing techniques during the Civil War.
Adams has been an educator for more than a quarter century. Teaching a new generation of students who suffer with anxiety, passivity, and a cynical view of their own nation and its principles has convinced him that a change is urgently needed: The recovery of national greatness requires that we passionately study our heroes. Lessons in Liberty is the first step to discovering the better angels of our nature by restoring the possibilities of individual freedom.
In this beautifully written, proudly patriotic, and deeply researched ode to American heroes from a rich variety of eras and backgrounds, Adams reclaims the power of the American story, discovering thirty different and surprising lessons that will inspire modern Americans to lead better and more substantive lives.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“So much of what’s broken about American education boils down to refusing to love good things. Lessons in Liberty reminds us of why we love America—enlivening history through stories of great Americans. Smart, patriotic, and readable, it’s what our cynical culture needs.” — Pete Hegseth, New York Times bestselling author of Battle for the American Mind
“Self-help manuals and political treatises are thick on the shelves, but what we really need in our disorienting moment is aspirational character study—portraits of people we can look up to. It’s a literary tradition as venerable as Plutarch’s Lives, and almost as badly neglected. Jeremy S. Adams revives it masterfully for the modern day, drawing insight from the lives of figures both well known and unexpected. A book to be savored and handed down, like the stories of our greatest men and women, from parents to their children.” — Spencer Klavan, author of How to Save the West
“For Americans who wring their hands about the state of the nation, Jeremy Adams offers blunt advice—do better—with examples, drawn from four centuries, of Americans who have done just that. Some of them made it to the White House, others worked in field hospitals or on tennis courts. All offer lessons we can learn from, if we try.” — Richard Brookhiser, author of Glorious Lessons: John Trumbull, Painter of the American Revolution
“Jeremy S. Adams is brave enough to assert what’s blindingly obvious: we can learn a lot from the heroes who believed in this crazy experiment of American freedom. Lessons in Liberty should be required reading in classrooms where iconoclasm has become the new dogma.” — Wilfred Reilly, author of Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me
About the Author
Jeremy S. Adams was the Daughters of the American Revolution 2014 California Teacher of the Year and a finalist for the Carlston Family Foundation Outstanding Teachers of America Award. He is a social studies teacher at Bakersfield High School and was a longtime political science lecturer at California State University, Bakersfield.
