A perspective on how our Society was Built, Topics on Power in America / West Point Print and Media LLC (ePub)

The challenge for all of us is to escape from what we WANT TO BE TRUE and let our hearts and minds discover what IS TRUE.

History should not be about making us feel good or patriotic. History is what happened, recorded or not. If we want to understand what happened or claim that we know our country's history, we must see it as it is-all of it-not how we want it to be. If we choose to ignore or can't handle what we are not proud of, we are saying that we are weak or fragile and can't take the truth-that we can only handle good history. This is contrary to the popular story that we are strong and powerful.

In this book, "A Perspective on How Our Society Was Built," Dr. Nash explores two kinds of societal power-the first kind uses force and falsehoods to stay in power. The second, which is used to counter the first comes from speaking up, acting on principle, being truthful, working to gain supporters, and being inclusive. Both kinds of power are explored here as each works to build the society it wants.

This continues an exploration of our history in his book, "How Our Government Was Built," which points out that only one group in the population was represented in creating our government and asks the question, "What might the Constitution be if all residents of the US had been represented in its creation?"