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Federalist Radio Hour
Loving America Starts With Knowing Her Stories
00:45:40
On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, Dr. Matthew Mehan, associate dean and associate professor of government for the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College in Washington D.C., joins Federalist Elections Correspondent...
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- [00:00]
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- [00:26]
Matt Kittle
Wayfair Every style, Every home. And we are back with another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle, senior elections correspondent at the Federalist and as always, your experience Sherpa on today's quest for knowledge. And as always, you can email the show@radiothefederalist.com Follow us on XDRLST. Make sure to subscribe where you download your podcast and of course, to the premium version of our website as well. Our guest today is Dr. Matthew Meehan, Associate dean and associate professor of government for the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College in Washington, D.C. he joins us today to talk about his new book, a family book, and it is a deep volume here, the American Book of Fables. Matt, thank you so much for joining us in this edition of the Federalist Radio Hour.
- [01:42]
Dr. Matthew Meehan
Thanks for having me.
- [01:43]
Matt Kittle
Absolutely. This is, it's, it's a thick book sometimes, I think it is for kids. It is for the family though, in general. And it is really about, from the, the founding of this country and what makes this country so exceptional. Give us.
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Dr. Matthew Meehan
That's right.
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Matt Kittle
Yeah. Give us a little sense of, of how you got started and, and what you, what the stories that you wanted to tell.
- [02:13]
Dr. Matthew Meehan
I mean, the country in a certain sense is in a kind of crisis of hope and optimism. And, you know, there's certainly reasons to be tempted to go the, the route of the black pill. And it seemed to me that we needed some major, you know, sort of celebratory work for our semi quincentennial, our 250th birthday. And so I didn't see anybody really doing the kind of literary artistic celebration in, you know, in preparation. So I decided that that was what I could do since I've been doing children's books in the past. But the book is basically a journey through the country, its regions, its folklore, really. It's folk history and its ecology. But it also takes up the declaration of Independence and weaves the. The sentences and lines of the Declaration with fables, nursery rhymes, primary sources, short stories, dialogues, poems written by me, all of these things, but also from the traditions, you know, things taken from Mother Goose and the New England Primer and things I've written. Aesop and myself. Short stories and poems, primary sources from letters from the Founders. It's actually a kind of compilation. Something old, something new, something red, white and blue to really help people fall in love with the country again.
- [03:41]
Matt Kittle
I like that phrasing. You got a little Johnny Appleseed in
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Dr. Matthew Meehan
there, you know, So I actually I. I checked myself a second ago, I said folklore. I don't do Paul Bunyan, I don't do Johnny Appleseed or. What I try to do is create kind of new fantastical stories and new characters like Hugh the Manatee and others, while weaving in actual history like Daniel Boone's crossing into Kentucky or the Ghost war dances of the last war between the Sioux and the Union cavalry or the American cavalry in the West. I try to sort of take up the history and interweave it with. With new fables and new mythological characters just to kind of keep it fresh. And those are well told stories, usually already, and you can buy those. But I wanted something to sort of. I think my job as a poet is to make the old new again rather than just represent the new. And so that's the route I chose.
- [04:42]
Matt Kittle
Yeah, well, I mean, again, we are celebrating this year 250 years of this exceptional nation. And you're right, I mean, we have been inundated for the last few decades, somewhat more, but definitely the last few decades. Certainly in academia we've been bombarded with all kinds of messages of how we should be ashamed of this country and its founding and all of these sorts of things. And I think Americans are absolutely tired of that. And I think that your book is a way to get them away from that. It is to escape back into, you know, the, the goodness that is the United States of America.
- [05:35]
Dr. Matthew Meehan
Yeah, I. The educational or. Or miseducational trends of the last almost. I mean, we're getting up on a hundred years of this mess in a certain sense. And obviously it's crescendoed in the last 30, but. But that whole trend is actually contrary to human nature and contrary to virtue and thus contrary to happiness and to the flourishing of the American republic. And you can kind of explain it, I think, through the virtue of patriotism, which is an actual virtue. It makes us happy. It is good to do. It is right. And if you don't attend to that in your curriculum, you have unhappy people. In fact, worse than that, you actually have slavish people, you have tyrannical people. And I think the engine of how that happens is kind of worth explaining in a certain sense with patriotism. Right? It's the choice, it's the rational choice to magnify the good in your forefathers and give thanks for the goods that they gave you, particularly life and order, tradition, custom, law, the republic, their sacrifices for PE peace and order, all of those kinds of things. Memorial Day is, you know, we're right around Memorial Day when this releases that kind of patriotic thanksgiving for all of our fallen heroes who defended our liberty and kept us safe. It's a choice. It doesn't say that you don't know that men are fallen and men are weak and that people have foibles and errors. We all do. But it's actually a rational choice to put in your mind and heart and then to put therefore into the next generation, into their minds and hearts, principally and foremost the good, excellent virtues, sacrifices, duties, well done, the gifts given to both for imitation so that you too can be good and better than your worst self, and also that you can be grateful. And I think that we can talk about that more. But I think the left's attack on gratitude is very much a part of a serious kind of postmodern Marxist strategy to really kill the hearts of Americans so that they can manipulate them.
- [07:53]
Matt Kittle
I couldn't agree with you more. I think that is, is the absolute plan. And they live in just miserable mental squalor and it's, they stew over and over. I remember Rush Limbaugh saying, the most unhappy people in the world today seem to be Democrats or liberals. And that is true. I, you look all around and it is, it's amazing. But there are still places where you can enjoy the story of this country, its founding principles. What was your favorite part to. This is a difficult question, I'm sure, because, you know, I, I, I know you, you enjoyed writing this book and, and learning as you, you went along. What was your favorite part of putting this book together?
- [08:49]
Dr. Matthew Meehan
I mean, honestly, I know you and I both share a love of U. S. History. The my favorite part, well, traveling to the national parks, I, I won several grants and, and went and did field research at certain national parks. And that as a just visceral explorer, you know, former boy scout like that was just a delight to go and see these beautiful places. And it made me full of love for God, the gift that he gave us of this incredible country and helped me understand the American soul more by seeing these beautiful places that have changed many souls. Right. And made them grateful. That was a highlight, and we can talk more about that. But in writing the book itself, having to engage primary source memoirs and historical accounts of both the Founding Fathers. But. But I kind of know that because I've been teaching US history, and I work here at the. You know, the Hillsdale in D.C. at the Constitutional center, you know, the Kirby Center. I'm an Americanist. I'm a professor of government. Like, I know those things more or less. I got to know them more deeply. But the thing that blew me away were all the memoirs of lesser characters in the settlement of the country. I found these stories about Haverhill, or Haverhill. It was the fortress town of. Of New England for 75 years. Basically the tip of the spear in the Indian Wars. It had more kidnappings, more scalpings, more raids and attacks. It had more block houses to defend themselves. Just an incredible stories of patience, of wrath, of losing their temper and freaking out. I mean, rightly. I mean, totally understandably, but the. Just an Incredible story of 75 years of real hardship and difficulty and bravery. And I learned of the James Cook. He was one of the very earliest cowboys from southeast Texas who led the cattle drives up north. He then became a hunter and hunting guide for people in what later became Yellowstone National Park. And then he was a guide for the army during the wars with the Indians, especially the Sioux. And then he became friends with Red Cloud after the Indians finally made peace. And he became. His ranch in northern Nebraska became this kind of rivendell, where Indians would come on walkabout and just visit and tell the old stories. And it was sort of the last friendly piece between the Pale Face and the Red man, but in real and authentic friendship. It's actually a beautiful story, and I get to tell a lot of stories like that. And that's just a few of them.
- [11:26]
Matt Kittle
Yeah, I love that. And this, you know, the settling of this country and its. Its roots and all of that, of course, ties into the idea of making a better life. And I think about the early settlers, you know, and then the westward expansion, that those are the kinds of stories that I think are absolutely lost today.
- [11:50]
Dr. Matthew Meehan
Yeah. And one of the things I do in the book, which frankly, made it a much harder thing to write, but it was just a worthy challenge I set myself because I think it would. It's more delightful for the reader and for sort of Americans going forward, because I Do hope this just becomes a kind of classic book on your every American family's coffee table. But is for instance, all the fables are tied to local and geologic or geographic, excuse me, history. So for instance I have one about a wolf and a dog that's adapted from Aesop about freedom versus safety. The dog's kind of fat and happy and domesticated. The wolf's lean and hungry, but he has his liberty. And it's kind of the trade off question. But I said it at Council Bluffs, Kansas, which is the last shaded place where every wagon train would gather water their cattle and horses and stay in the shade for a few days while they gathered enough prairie schooners, enough covered wagons to get a big enough flotilla to feel safe crossing over the Great Grass desert where people get lost, they can't find water and the Indians still roamed. And it's just this really cool part of our history that people don't know and you just sort of, you get to tell it in like three easy sentences laying a place to where you tell this fable and that kind of thing really helps. I think readers and Americans for years to come know a lot about our history but also sort of love all the little, little details of our history and its settlement.
- [13:27]
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- [14:02]
Matt Kittle
Let us go back to the founding highlighting the, the people and, and sometimes you know, the people who get lost to the history pages but were so important at the early stages of the rise of this country to delve into, into those kinds of stories.
- [14:21]
Dr. Matthew Meehan
Yes, I, I did a lot of research beforehand. I even wrote some scholarly work on the founders imagination and what was in their hearts and minds. So I both try to highlight our heroes like John Adams and George Washington and John Hancock and, and Madison and, and Hamilton. I, I try to put forward a lot of those stories. There's letters between them, little adventures and poems about them. But I also try to highlight who their heroes were and get them talking about their heroes that led them to do all their courageous and, you know, sort of duty bound and sacrificial and incredibly prudent acts. Right. So I, I try to sort of paint a picture of our founding heroes and, and their lives, but also the heroes that animated them so that we can share in their mind. And it winds up being a kind of beautiful account of their inner life while they're doing the work of the revolution and the founding of the country.
- [15:23]
Matt Kittle
Heroes of every generation. I think about, you know, Abraham Lincoln and growing up first starting out in, in Kentucky and, and then in Indiana and then ultimately in Illinois where he, he made his life before the end of his life in Washington, dc. But how important those books about the heroes of the previous generation or generations, how important that was to him? How much do you go into the life and times of, you know, presidents like Abraham Lincoln?
- [16:04]
Dr. Matthew Meehan
But I try to have a light touch on sort of a full historical account. But I try to weave them in so that I try to rely on parents and people who know a little about Lincoln. But for instance, I bring in Lincoln's poems. People don't know this. He wrote poetry.
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Matt Kittle
Oh, yes.
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Dr. Matthew Meehan
And Hugh Manatee, this character that sort of intermittently appears in different stories and goes on a journey. He actually produces volumes at will and reads from them in certain stories and parts of the plot. And he takes up some of Lincoln's poetry, which is quite good, actually. It's very beautiful.
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Matt Kittle
Oh, yeah.
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Dr. Matthew Meehan
And talks about the, the sort of how do you deal with memory? And so I actually, again, I sort of, I touch on his inner life. But then obviously I have, you know, excerpt from the Gettysburg Address. I have references to the entire struggle with slavery and, you know, Lincoln's and Frederick Douglass's sort of approach to union and slavery through the rule of law, but also sort of pressing towards the Declaration's promise of, you know, liberty and natural rights, of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for all. So I try to, I try to bring them in, but I try to keep it a kind of light touch throughout. But I also, you know, Teddy Roosevelt gets little nods here. There's a bull moose named Theodore who comes in and does some.
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Matt Kittle
That's great.
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Dr. Matthew Meehan
Some heroic work in the national parks and save some people. So there's a lot of that kind of thing. But it's sort of, I'm playing off of what I hope to be also a general knowledge of US History, which is frankly returning to our schools, you know, And I think with a 250, there's going to be a lot more interest over time. But also if you, if you put these little sort of hints and seeds out, it's designed to arouse people's curiosity such that they'll go on and read the biographies, read the textbooks and learn more about our history. But I start with delightful stories, illustrations, poems, fables, and then just selections of primary sources.
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Matt Kittle
Now, the bull moose doesn't have any problems in Milwaukee, does he? Because I know that was that city. That city was a little rough on Theodore Roosevelt, of course.
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Dr. Matthew Meehan
But no, but in fact, Matt, I have to ask you do. You might remember, do you know the name of. There's an eagle that sits in the Wisconsin.
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Matt Kittle
Sam. Yeah, Sam.
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Dr. Matthew Meehan
So I actually feature Sam the Eagle.
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Matt Kittle
Oh, that's great.
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Dr. Matthew Meehan
In one of the. Chapter four, when we go to the Great Lakes and Great Rivers, when we do Wisconsin, Sam the eagle is flying over the Apostle Islands and sort of talking about the song of Hiawatha and all kinds of things and then heads back down to Madison. So it's a nice nod to Wisconsin local lore.
- [19:07]
Matt Kittle
Well, I appreciate it that of course as an old Wisconsin boy and Sam the eagle was like the star in the, the, the latter 19th century into the early 20th century.
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Dr. Matthew Meehan
Lived a long time for, for your audience we should. Yeah, right. Yeah, it was a live eagle.
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Matt Kittle
A live eagle, yeah.
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Dr. Matthew Meehan
Brought out as a union mascot for one of the regiments of Wisconsin. I forget which. And, and then once he passed away they stuffed him and put him in, in a place of honor inside the House of Representatives or the capital Legislative.
- [19:44]
Matt Kittle
Well, so exactly. Yeah, the, the still you can talk to some of the old timers at that capital in Madison and they'll tell you some pretty interesting stories about Sam the Eagle and, and, and how they had to move him around from time to time. Fires and the capital and all of these.
- [20:04]
Dr. Matthew Meehan
Yeah, the new one's actually sad to say it's a reproduction because he actually did go up in flames at one point when the Capitol burned badly.
- [20:11]
Matt Kittle
He did. It was a sad ending for Sam, but again a legend.
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Dr. Matthew Meehan
So each, each of the fables in the book takes up multiple threads of local, national, but also universal principles of ethics and republican self government. I try to do sort of the local, the national and. And then the universal in all of the different aspects of the book.
- [20:35]
Matt Kittle
Our guest today is Dr. Matthew Meehan, Associate Dean and Associate professor of Government for the Van Andel Graduate School at Hillsdale College in Washington D.C. his new book, One for the Family, the American Book of Fables. And Matt, what, what I think is what I'm Hearing from you, most importantly maybe is the guidance, the direction of this country and the, the faith issue that this was a nation that was created under the understanding that rights are not made or given from a government. They come from our creator, from God. This is a Christian nation. It was built on Christian Judeo Christian principles. And it just amazes me. One of my colleagues at the Federalist did a story recently about somebody, I'm trying to remember who it was in left wing media, but she was, she was complaining that J.D. vance talked about, you know, the God given rights. She was offended that it, that he would bring God into it. Well, I'm going to tell you something. I'm very glad that this book of fables has God in it and what, you know, the, our founders and our ancestors believed and carried with them throughout.
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Dr. Matthew Meehan
Yes. I'd like to say that Providence, God's providence is actually a character in the book in a funny way. I include little prayers that were very popular. Now I lay me down to sleep, I play the Lord, My soul to keep are in the nursery rhyme section. I actually adapt and modernize a few Shaker hymns that are very beautiful. And I write a few new nursery rhymes to honor the Puritans. And I try to weave that in. And then by the end of the book, humanity, because think of it this way, humanity, obviously stupid pun on humanity and humanitas. Right, which is the Ciceronian concept of how people ought to be treated well, which is the early seed of our kind of natural rights regime that we have to protect people's natural rights, I. E. What is right and natural for someone and how they ought to be treated by the government. Therefore that, that kind of thing, humanity has to engage God. But, but that's almost like a secular concept from Roman republican philosophy. But he climbs the mountain, he pursues happiness, he goes up the mountain towards God and by the end he actually goes to the Going to the Sun Road, which is an actual and beautiful place in Glacier National Park. And the pun on going to the sun and spoiler alert, but I think you'll still enjoy it regardless is going to the sun is lowercase S sun, you know, sort of S U N meaning a sunny disposition, meaning American optimism, like you have to preserve that. And there's a sustained argument for why that's actually the most reasonable position for people to take even when things look grim, which they do in some sense today. But, but then going to the sun pun on S O N, the Son of God, right? Going to Christ and that, that and that, that sort of that witty, wise double meaning of things, where we see things in a secular, natural, light, nature, but we also see nature's God behind these things and above them. And that's part of the wit and wisdom of the American people, that they know earthly things like they're. They're. They're practical, but they also know heavenly things. They're wise. And that's why I opened the book with a beautiful sort of scutcheon, a little image that I consider to be a kind of funny little image of the American people and the Declaration of the Constitution. And I put with it Matthew 10:16. Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Be therefore wise as serpents, innocent as the dove. You have to be witty and forked, tongued and clever about the world, but you also have to be simple and wise in the spirit of God. And that marriage of wit and wisdom, which was a favorite theme of Ben Franklin and Poor Richard Almanac, that's something I try to sort of re. Gift to our memory because I feel so many people were bereft of it. It was withheld from their education by, I think, malevolent forces that wanted them to forget themselves. And, you know, knowing oneself and knowing one's people and knowing one's history is patriotism. That's. That's religion, that's piety, and those are the paths to happiness and unity.
- [25:20]
Matt Kittle
I think you just said it. I think you just wrapped it up. But I want to go further into that, you know, the 1619 Project and all of these, you know, misery stews out there, and I think about how much we have lost in our schools. And so the bigger question is, how do we get this back? And obviously, the American Book of Fables, which our own Molly Hemingway says is a wild and wondrous work of imagination, but it's real literary achievement is that it is a beautiful and unifying testament of our country's incomparable moral and civic greatness. How do we. Because it feels like we've. We've really lost that to a great degree, that moral and civic greatness. How do we get that back?
- [26:14]
Dr. Matthew Meehan
So it sounds too simple, and it. It's, you know, my book's very big and not very simple, but, but, but the simple answer is we actually have to become morally excellent like our forefathers again. Right? And that means that we have to adhere to the important principles that our country put forward in the Declaration and lived out in so many beautiful ways. But we also have to have a really a much deeper knowledge of virtue and what it is to be a good and virtuous person. I do feel that our imagination about the moral life is so less decorous than those of previous or founding, especially early generations, that we have a sort of, our mind is sort of furnished with Ikea furniture about, about virtues, whereas they knew the warp and woof of virtue and how they're related and how to practice them best. So that it actually we are trending in the right direction because you can be honest, but there's a way to be honest that is American, that is Republican, and there's a way to be honest that is more monarchical or more oligarchic. Right. There's actually ways of practicing the virtues that befit your way of life and your constitution. And I actually think that that work has not been done in a long time. And the place that that work is done traditionally is in fable. That's where fables are not simple. Usually there's a simple fable, then a complicated one, and you're supposed to compare and contrast. And so I really, what I try to do is sort of up our, our moral technology, so to speak. And I think that's a really important part of it. But the only way people are going to care is no one likes a right. They like fun puzzles, they like beautiful and humorous stories. And that's, that's what I've presented for the American family again. And I, I think that's a long. It's going to do a lot to help. I do think that.
- [28:16]
Matt Kittle
Most political shows tell you what to think. The future of Freedom podcast trust you to think for yourself. Every episode features two guests who share a commitment to liberty and limited government, but disagree on one major issue. And instead of debating each other, they each make their case one at a time, clearly, thoughtfully, and without the usual political theater. It's a refreshing change from the outrage driven media we're all used to. Hear multiple sides of an argument and make up your own mind. Search for future of freedom. Wherever you listen to podcast, I think it begins with picking up a book and sharing it with the family, just like the American Book of Fables. We don't have that now, though in so many cases, you know, it's pick up your, your little screen in your hand and see whatever you, I guess, want to on the, the Internet. But it's, it's so disconnected from what we used to do as Americans and that would be to read together, to share these kinds of stories, these fables, these parables. I think we've, we've lost A lot of that.
- [29:40]
Dr. Matthew Meehan
So, Matt, you'll. You'll appreciate this literally, in the introduction. I just have a very brief introduction that's not tied to a line from the Declaration nor to one of the regions of the country yet, but the very first poem, melodies from Father Goose, if you don't mind. Indulge me. It's very short. I'll just read it. I sort of tease the reader about this very issue. Number one. The wise men of Europe sailed a barrel of syrup to the edge of the world as they knew it. They settled on shore with too little in store, and the rest of the world thought they blew it. This song would be longer if our focus were stronger. And that's it, right? I know you're probably not used to reading books, so let's start very short, and I'm gonna mock you just a little. And that's why I did a kind of family book where you can read a couple poems and then set it down right. If your family doesn't have a strong reading culture established, and hopefully you do and you want one, this is a way to sort of, like step ladder back into that with short bursts. You can read a couple of the nursery rhymes for littles. There's a nice, you know, acorn at. Wherever. There's little things for little people. Then I have a sapling like a little seal. And then you can read one or two of the fables and then. Or you could read one of the stories or primary sources or poems, you know, et cetera, for the. For the. For the bigs and in short bursts so you could read it all the way through. It actually has a beginning, middle and end. It'll take you someplace. It has a. A kind of poetic movement to help you see grand things about America and the moral life and providence. But it also can be just picked up in little bits. So it operates like a grand sort of narrative book in some ways, about America. But it also operates like Bill Bennett's the Book of Virtues, where you can just pick up a couple things and read the moral and think about it and enjoy a couple illustrations.
- [31:35]
Matt Kittle
I'm still enjoying the whole concept of a barrel of syrup. And I don't. I don't know why, Matt, but I'm. I'm suddenly hungry for pancakes and waffles. Thank you for that. It's. It's also the growth of America through these. These fables, in these stories, in these poems. And if you really look back, I mean, 250 years compared to the rest of the world, of course, in some places is a blink of the eye. But look how much has been accomplished in this country, for this country and for the world, in this exceptional Nation, over that 250 years. What a remarkable time. And it's you. You really get into that growth of the country and the growth of its founding principles.
- [32:26]
Dr. Matthew Meehan
Yes, I. This Sunday on the Mall, there was the rededication to God of the whole country. And it was a beautiful event. And one of the things that they've done. I was honored to have the White House produced a video with a montage of beautiful images from the settlement of the country. And with it, they read. They had read, by a professional actor, the Benedictor. Benedictory poem at the end of the entire work. And it's called American Morning. And there's a pun in the title. You can hear mourning like sorrow or what's red you. It's a choice before Americans, or you can be optimistic. You can choose to see America as having a new morning. But again, if you'll indulge me, I'll read it. It's very short. It's 20 lines, but each line is a line that summarizes a part of our history and then closes with this sort of gratitude, but also a call to live up to that incredible story. And I. That it sort of summarizes the whole book just in the way you described. And if. If you will, Matt, if you. If you'd like me not to say now.
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Matt Kittle
No, please do. Please do. Yeah.
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Dr. Matthew Meehan
American Morning. If we could till the earth as our fathers did and look on loam that Providence long hid and drink from gin Clear rivers overflowing through meadow traces full of bison lowing. If we could step beyond that blackest tillage and wander into hunting ground and village and smoke the peace pipe trading well for furs and find a spring before we die of thirst. If we could make a track without a rest and end at peaceful waters in the west and build the dams and raise the towers up and from them ring the bells for all to sup. If we could dredge the harbor and port the air and send our ships abroad to make things fair and rise beyond the curvature of earth and in one step both wax and wayne man's worth. If we could do what our fathers did before then what on earth would we be grateful for? The sun now shines on us to play our part as holy as we orient our heart.
- [34:49]
Matt Kittle
That is. That is excellent.
- [34:51]
Dr. Matthew Meehan
That.
- [34:51]
Matt Kittle
That is the survey of America and its story right there in. In 20 lines.
- [34:58]
Dr. Matthew Meehan
And.
- [34:58]
Matt Kittle
And I love the description of course, but the, the whole sense of that pioneering spirit is really woven throughout that. Is that, is that one of the things that drew you to writing this book, that pioneer spirit as we, we like to say that, you know, rustic individual or rugged individualism, I should say. And I, I put this in context of my, my youngest children are now old enough to watch a movie that I think is about as powerful as any Saving Private Ryan. And, and at the beginning of the movie, this old man is going to see the row upon row of tombstone in France, Normandy invasion and those buried in from World War II. And he breaks down, is at his knees and we find out what he is so thankful for. But he wants to know from his family that he did what he needed to do, live a good life. Or as the captain played by Tom Hanks in the movie says, as they save Private Ryan, earn this, earn this. Did you get that, that sense of the pioneering spirit, but the gratitude for that as you moved forward.
- [36:34]
Dr. Matthew Meehan
Yeah, the poem, those last lines about, you know, you should be grateful for all this. But of course the next step is it calls you to sort of take stock and ask what are you supposed to do? What's your pioneering spirit? And I actually. So this is the kind of work that you can't do with a history book really. It actually has to be done through fictional and oratorical means. And I think it's important work that I'm doing that is very rare right now, which is what do we do next? And I actually have, there's a lot of very delicate and thoughtful themes that help Americans think about what is our next project. You know, people are all vying, you know, we're going to go to Mars, says Elon Musk. Well, maybe, you know, like what are we going to do next? And I try to actually wed that frontier spirit to a kind of project of what one lovely review put rightly, recultivation. That is to say, you have to have the imagination of a pioneer. But obviously the land is mostly settled. But what, what needs to be settled, Right. Well, we don't, we don't have Indians, but we have blue haired radicals. Right. Like we have, we have serious, ideologically possessed, you know, urban landscapes that need the settlers grit and the clever ingenuity, the witty, wise ingenuity of that American can do spirit to basically turn east, right? Orient means east. We have to orient our hearts. You've hit the west Coast, Manifest Destiny. Go west, young manatee. I have a whole joke about that. Well now you have to turn east and re cultivate not just America, but Europe. And that is an enormous project as or more enormous than settling the great continent of the United states, the lower 48 and beyond. And that is actually something we have to do right. That's before us. And it's actually a greater challenge than our forefathers were given in a certain sense because it's moral and much more complicated in a certain sense. But it calls upon that spirit of our forefathers. And so I try to basically create the memory and the sort of storehouse of images that can power these next great labors of the American generations to come. And I just think no one's thinking that way as constructively as this. And not to toot my own horn, but it just needed doing. I was just, I felt very called like someone's gotta paint this picture and set a kind of new polestar for us to pursue. And the book tries to do that.
- [39:16]
Matt Kittle
I think that's a great term for it. What was it? Recultivate.
- [39:20]
Chris Markowski
Yes.
- [39:22]
Matt Kittle
I also think there's another R word for this restoration, which 100% and, and a reawakening. And we've seen a number of those in this country and elsewhere really in, in the Christian world, do you believe we are on the edge or are we now in a reawakening, a reawakening to the importance of God, of our Creator? For me it's Jesus Christ and what he has done for me and my family and this world. But do you believe that there will be a rejection of as you say, the, the blue haired approach to life?
- [40:10]
Dr. Matthew Meehan
So yes, I think some of the reports of the, the massive groundswell are a little overdone. But, but, but I think what they're, what they're feeling is the incredible impact of even the smaller regenerative seed. And they feel it and they can feel that a great oak tree is coming, right? Like, like they're aware that something is on the move. And I do think that the cat's out of the bag, the prairie fire has been lit. There is no putting this out. I don't even think a Stalinist level pogrom of Team Good Guy, if God help us, that happened here could stop what's now coming. And this through the classical ed movement, the liberal arts movement, school choice, homeschooling, the new civics curricula that states are adopting, the fact that governors, mostly Republican governors, alas, but the fact that governors are now ashamed if they don't have a very serious civic ed program to regenerate the next generation where 10 years ago they would like buy, they would sign on the Republican Governors association would just sign on to some asinine project from Common Core without blinking an eye just because somebody wined and dined them in a convention center. Like things have changed. There is a sea change both in care for the young and educating them properly according to virtue, towards God and with lots of solid history and formation. But, but, but also then I do think that there is a really, when things get bad, we're, we're, we're pathetic human beings. We are weak and we need God and we let things get pretty bad. And when they get pretty bad and they're pretty bad, then, you know, we start to pray again. And I think that that's just happening. And those are all those two things. Both that sort of very rational, natural human political side and then I think that spiritual individual slash, you know, sort of church side, both are on the wing. And I don't think they can be stopped.
- [42:11]
Matt Kittle
I'm glad to hear that because I've said this many times. As we face another midterm election, what is being termed again and aren't they all existential elections for this republic. I think if we don't get it right for changing what we're doing in our schools, if we don't instill those civic values and we teach the history as it is, but not in, invent the history because of some grievance culture or victim culture or you know, because of politics and an agenda. And I think the farther we get away from that, the better off we are going to be and that that leads to the survival of this republic. Before we go, I do want to ask, since this is a 250 year celebration I'm excited about, I've been excited about it all year. But there are some big things coming up as we get closer and closer to the fourth of July. What does Hillsdale have planned this year?
- [43:16]
Dr. Matthew Meehan
Well, so we've been very busy. You, I know you know Matt Spalding, the vice president out here, he and I've helped him somewhat but he's been spearheading the freedom trucks which are now rolling out all over the country. They're basically mobile museums that explain the founding. And I think there's three of them that are kind of racing across the country till through December. We are also Hillsdale's releasing a movie that's going to be in theaters soon. Look for that about the founding and the decoration and the war, the Revolutionary War, which is very beautiful. I've already seen Some of that very high production value. And then you know, we're going to have events down here at the D.C. campus. We've got one of the beautiful revolutionary era musical performance going to be in our hall. We're doing military history talks on the Revolutionary War. So if you go to D.C. hillsdale Edu, you can learn all about the events that are up upcoming. And then of course, Matt Spalding's book the Making of the American Mind is a great book and then my own. And there's, there's a ton of things happening with Hillsdale. And we're also going to open a booth both, I have one for my book separately. But also the Hillsdale College is going to have a major booth display like a presentation at the Great American State Fair on the mall for two weeks during the, the, the 250th celebration. With lots of cool things to learn about the country and the founding and the Declaration.
- [44:48]
Matt Kittle
Well, you just reaffirmed what I've known for a long time. You can always count on Hillsdale. Well, this is a great exploration for the entire family as we celebrate 250 years of this exceptional nation. And it's extremely accessible when you, you talk about the, the poetry and the illustrations, the, the stories, the, the poems, all of that. And then a greater exploration for those who, who want to read in in greater detail. Thanks to My guest today, Dr. Matthew Meehan, Associate dean and associate professor of government for the Van Andil Graduate School of Government, Hillsdale College in Washington D.C. his new book is called America the American Book of Fables. You've been listening to another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle, senior elections correspondent at the Federalist. We'll be back soon with more. Until then, stay lovers of freedom and anxious for the FR. Table working together.