Forward by: Glenn Beck

This is a story you won’t believe.

It starts with a hundred famished, starving people so desperate for food they had to eat their milk cows, slaughter their plough horses, and kill their dogs. When that ran out they hunted birds and squirrels, and then trapped rats and mice, and finally boiled the leather of their shoes to chew. When that was gone, they turned to each other, waiting on the dying for their next meal. It’s an ugly tale of starvation and desperation that didn’t happen at some far away place, it happened right here in our own backyard-- Jamestown, Virginia.  

A Hard Beginning

By Christmas day of 1607, more than two thirds of those first colonists in Jamestown were dead. The next year, more settlers arrived but most of them died that winter. The year after that came additional arrivals and more deaths—from starvation. It was an experiment in failure that repeated its deadly tally for seven terrible years.
The plan was simple, really: plant the first English settlement in America—more of a business venture than a colonization—and gather up all that gold. You know, all that gold lies around everywhere?
When word of the colony spread around England, hundreds more preceded them and prove that a fresh load of strong backs and keen minds could stand the rigors of the wilds—after all, English settlers had been colonizing faraway places for all ages, all over the worlds, why should the Americas be any different?
But the “starving times” kept killing them off. Of the estimated 9,000 who sailed to Virginia, only 1,000 survived.
There were two main reasons why Jamestown wasn’t working, and this is my point.
The first problem was the problem of habit—everybody had been doing things the same old way for more than 5,000 years.
Okay, we made some improvements since the pyramids, but not many. The Jamestown settlers traveled in boats not much better than those that sailed the Nile. Their farm tools consisted of a shovel, a stick plow and a scythe—about the same as you could pick up at your local Baghdad Hardware and Feed in 3000 B.C. And even though there was an early form of China, there was still no Walmart, so their clothing had to be handspun and hand-woven. Transportation was by cart and oxen, and their medicine was more superstition than substance—and worst of all, most of them died young.

The second reason the colony wasn’t working was that the leadership didn’t bother updating the way they ran the place. They started off with communalism—every man could take from the general storehouse what he needed and was supposed to give back what he could. In theory, everybody would give back enough so they all could survive. After all, shouldn’t the welfare of the colony be more important than individual welfare? While people would like to believe otherwise, the real answer is a resounding no.

The Jamestown experiment backfired. Worse than that, it was a pure disaster—uglier than Plato had promised.
It was in fact pure socialism in action. The men were divided into threes—a third to start the farm, a third to build the fort, and a third to head off into the woods and find gold. Naturally everybody slipped away to go hunt for gold and they neglected the fort and the farm. Oh yes, some of them bothered the local Indians and were shot with arrows—back in those days the welcome wagon was nowhere in sight.

The big fix didn’t come until 1614. That’s when the colony leadership realized it wasn’t a lack of food that kept killing off the settlers—it was a famine of knowledge of correct principles.

Sir Thomase Dale spotted it immediately that year when he first stepped off the boat and into a stagnated mass of unmotivated colonists. It seemed obvious what the problem was—the men were lazy because they had no investment in the land—they had no private property. Without asking permission from the colony’s shareholders, Dale when ahead and gave three acres of land to the old timers, less to the newly arrived, and asked only that in return they provide tow barrels of corn for the store house at harvest time.

It’s amazing what a little freedom can do for the downtrodden!

The colonists were thrilled. They dropped what they were doing and hurried about clearing their land, plowing their ground, planting, dunging, watering—whatever they could to have their own food for the winter. By that fall, the storehouse was full thanks to the two—barrel tax, and the people were alive. Tobacco came later, and suddenly the colony took root and started on the road to prosperity.

Why Jamestown Was Different

Jamestown was different from other colonies because it finally shed its failing ways and started practicing free enterprise principles—the freedom to own and control property, and enjoy its fruits. Years later these ideas worked their way into Adam Smith and his famous book, The Wealth of Nations.

The blood of these pioneers started the groundswell that brought use the first popular assembly of legislative representatives in the western hemisphere. Their descendants included many of the foremost intellects Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence; James Madison, “Father of the Constitution;” George Washington, hero- general of the war for Independence; George Mason, author of the first American Bill of Rights in Virginia. Four of the first five presidents of the United States sprung from this fire-tested colony. 

Two Hundred Years Later

What’s two hundred years in the history of the world? Nothing really—maybe an average Chinese dynasty—it’s a blink. Two hundred years after the Constitution was signed, the great “noble experiment” of America’s Declaration of Independence and free-enterprise economics had produced phenomenal results. The United States started accumulating a fantastic list of achievements in technology, politics, and economics never before witnessed in the history of humankind. The spirit of freedom infected people all around the globe, and free-market economics unleashed creativity and brilliance in nations everywhere. A literal explosion of progress crackled wherever freedom could reach. Electricity, the internal combustion engine, nuclear energy, aircraft, electronics, communications, travel to the moon or the bottom of the sea—suddenly, nearly anything seemed possible.

People started living longer—double the average lifespan of a few centuries before. Our homes, quality of food and clothing, the luxuries of central air and heat, running water and flushing toilets, common-day travel around the globe, tens of millions of books, increased capacity to invent and understand, educational advances for the average student, cures, entertainment, and non-stop movies of TV or your iPod—all came about not just in America but to benefit the entire world.

In just 200 years, the human race made a 5,000 year leap!

Can we lose it?

Every generation feels it must re-invent the sociological wheel. If we were still taught these basics in school, maybe we could skip a few years of stupidity, but it’s too late for our generation. We have to pay our stupid tax.
For a hundred years, social and political experiments outside of the Constitution and prosperity principles have played havoc with our culture, and now we’re making the same dumb mistakes prior failed cultures have made.
So, we’ve got to ask: Are we really better off under the decay of freedom that we have today, than we were back when that nasty old constitution dictated everything?

Dr. Skousen points out when it comes to the physical sciences, knowledge and discovery is added to the main body of knowledge as time passes—it builds on the lessons of the past. But the same doesn’t happen with the social sciences.

Dr. Skousen warns us that when we don’t teach the rising generation those cultural and moral lessons that keep society healthy and safe, the people end up making all the same mistakes—and not just once, but half a dozen times or more. We’re doing it right now, he says, and muddle our lives with “drugs, riots, revolutions, and terrorism; predatory wars; unnatural sexual practices; merry-go-round marriages; organized crime; neglected and sometimes brutalized children; plateau intoxication; debt ridden prosperity; and all the other ingredients of insanity which have shattered twenty mighty civilizations in the past.” And he made that list 30 years ago!
To that list I would add these other mistakes that are leading us down a dead-end road: the bailout “un-stimulus program,” nationalization of our banks and auto industry, the loss of secret balloting for union activities, taxation without resources, punishing the productive, rewarding the lazy, squelching opposing viewpoints, redistributing the wealth, creating an entitlement mentality, granting more rights to illegals than our own citizens, a fear of our fellow citizens and loss of pride in the greatness of this nation—and generally the ignoring of our constitutional rights, privileges and opportunities.

The 28 Great Ideas That Helped Change The World

There is no reason why our American way of life should be drowning in the same mistakes of those failed empires of the past, except for perhaps this one—as a culture we’ve stopped teaching and practicing the true principles of prosperity.
There are 28 great ideas that helped change our world, and the funny thing is, the American founding fathers hardly invented a single one of them. But they did find them and brought them together in a single document that has blessed this great nation and the entire world. These ideas didn’t all come together at once. After Jamestown, it took 180 years to pull these great concepts together so that true and lasting freedom was born.
It worked so well so fast that after just two years as a nation, George Washington was able to write, “The United States enjoy a scene of prosperity and tranquility under the new government that could hardly have been hoped for.” And the very next day in another letter he said, “Tranquility reigns among the people with that disposition towards the general government which is likely to preserve it… Our public credit stands on that [high] ground which three years ago it would have been considered as a species of madness to have foretold.” (The Writings of George Washington, Vol. 31: 316-317, 318-319)

It’s Time to Get Back to Basics in some ways, during parts of 2007 and 2008 I experienced one of the most difficult periods of my life. There had been other times where I experienced financial and family troubles, but this was bigger. I had begun to lose hope. I began to see the massive problems that we – as a nation and as a people – were facing. It seemed like no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t come up with a way it could resolve itself. The more I looked, the more I wished I hadn’t looked. How can I hand this country to my children and grand children in better shape than it was given to me?

Without any answers, I spiraled into a sort of despair. How do you fix these problems? How do you fix the economic nightmare that is on its way caused by overspending, massive debt, and giant social programs? How do you protect your kids and country from a force that doesn’t have a uniform? What’s the right balance between security and liberty? How do you cure American’s lack of faith in their government when the political parties are intentionally dividing us?   

Then one day in the spring, I was walking down the Avenue of the Americans in Manhattan and the answer came to me. It was so dramatic that it made me stop in the middle of the sidewalk and laugh out loud. The answer was obvious and best of all, the thinking and worrying had already been done for me. The questions that we face were foreseen by the greatest group of Americans to ever live; our Founding Fathers. They knew we would be grappling with issues like the ones we face today at some point, so they designed a ship that could withstand even the mightiest storm. They also knew that we would eventually lose our way and that we would need a beacon to lead our way back.

I often times have wondered why the constitution appears as it does. Why the words “We the people,” are so large. After all, it’s not like James Madison wrote those three words then realized, “Oh shoot, I can’t use this sixed font or we’ll run out of space!” They did it for a reason. The answer is not the government, it's not a politician, it's not a policy; it's always, “We the people.”

Unfortunately, many of us have been so misinformed or suffer from such a high degree of apathy, that we have no idea who our founders really were. We don’t understand how they lived, what rights they were actually trying to protect, and what our responsibilities are to ensure that protection. Within a couple of weeks after that revelation on the sidewalk a friend—without solicitation—sent me a copy of this book. He said, “Glenn, I don’t know if you’ve ever read this, but it's the simplest, easiest way for Americans of all ages to understand the simple yet brilliant principles our founders based this country on.”

After reading it, I realized a couple of things. One, its author—was years ahead of his time. And secondly, our founders were thousands of years ahead of their time. My hope is that all Americans young and old will spend the time with this book to understand why we are who we are. The words of our Founding Fathers have a way of reaching across any political divide. They are words of wisdom that I can only describe as divinely inspired. They are here for us to help solve the unsolvable—and they are the reason why we have for so long been the greatest nation on earth. But most importantly, in these pages, you will find hope.
I know that I have.

I Want Your Solemn Promise

Right now, right this very moment, I want you to make me a promise. Promise me you will read this book cover to cover in the next 30 days—sooner if you can. Promise me you will pass this book along to somebody else when you’re done. Commit them to read it in 30 days.

Promise me you will write down the 28 ideas and teach them to your children, your neighbors, your friends—Now is the time to get out of our comfort zone.       

You, me, all of us were born for this day, to stand responsible before God and future generations to keep this torch of freedom lit, and bear it away from ruin. Twenty failed empires of the past gave ample proof that no generation having tasted freedom and then lost it has ever tasted it again.

Do you remember our resolve on September 12, our promise to each other to link arms and face the coming storms together? Those storms are now boiling overhead—our Republic is at stake. You don’t have to be like Washington’s troops and track bloody footprints through the snow at Valley Forge, let’s pray to God we never have to go there again. To fight this battle you need to read, to understand. Learn these 28 ideas, make them your own, put them on the fridge, the bathroom mirror, on your forehead, I don’t care—just know them by heart, that’s all I ask. And yes—there will be a quiz, there’s always a quiz.

Remember those minutemen in the days of our Revolutionary War? Do you remember their job, to be ready to defend the encroachment of the Redcoats with a minute’s notice? If you were called upon to preserve our freedom, to save our Constitution, could you be ready—could you answer in a minute?
I want you to think of this--

One of my favorite Bible stories is Joshua and the battle of Jerico. Remember how they marched around the city and all at once blew their horns and the walls went tumbling down? That’s us all over the place. We are the troops. The truth is our trumpet. And the walls are the same old tired ideas forced on us today—ideas that didn’t work at Jamestown, and certainly won’t work now. The power is ours to blast our horns and shake those rotted scales off our freedoms, shake them to rubble and get our country back.

Read this book and discover we’re a lot like Joshua—They don’t surround us, we surround Them!
But you’ve got to have your horn ready—now is the time.

Promise me.

--Glenn Beck, March 2009