'Quarrelsome Nation: The Thirteen American Arguments'

"The Thirteen American Arguments" takes a sweeping look at the fundamental debates that, Fineman argues, have shaped America from its seventeenth-century colonial roots. Who, for instance, is a person? Who, for that matter, is an American? What is the role of faith in public life, or the role of the individual vis as vis an expansive, growing state? How, ultimately, can we make sure our system is equitable and "fair"?

Fineman's years as a high-level political reporter have armed him with a library of up-close-and-personal anecdotes that give the book its flavor, but the real meat of each chapter comes from the condensed--in some cases, one wishes they were less so--historical perspective offered on each debate. Whether it comes to the Supreme Court's many contradictory rulings on race or the long history of squelching free speech in America, each major argument serves as a useful reminder that many things held sacred as "quintessentially American" are actually modern evolutions, produced by years of painful debate.

The primary goal of the book, Fineman writes, is to "cut through the noise of the day," unveiling the core themes and arguments that simmer under our various public debates. "The earthquakes and lava eruptions we see and hear every day, whether at Daily Kos or the Drudge Report, whether on O'Reilly or NPR, are merely visible expression of deeper forces," he writes. However, if you know your political and historic turf, he argues, "you can separate what is useful from what is mere bombast and entertainment." In the midst of the rather bombastic and always entertaining 2008 presidential campaigns, where many debates devolve into "he said," "she said," and various denials, dissembling, and vituperation regarding what he or she said, this would be a useful skill indeed.

Several of Fineman's thirteen American arguments, including "Debt and the Dollar," "The Terms of Trade," and "War and Diplomacy," have, at least on the surface, been hashed and rehashed into near-oblivion this year. The deeper, more prevalent debate, however, dances around the last of Fineman's thirteen arguments: the quest for a "fair, 'more perfect' union," fueled by an effort to "dismantle the power of the elites who have rigged the system against the little guy." Sound familiar, campaign watchers? This particular American argument, Fineman writes, is held "between Main Street and Wall Street, grass roots and powers that be...The Argument lures us down byways of hatred, fear, and division, but mostly it has led to a fairer, more open America." Today, of course, this argument is best seen in Democratic class-warfare rhetoric. Whether it will continue to lead to a more open America, however, is certainly worth questioning--particularly if the argument centers on imaginary grievances or constructed identities rather than the real, more daunting problems at hand.

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