A Republic, If We Can Teach It - by Jeffrey Sikkenga & David Davenport (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

America faces a crisis in civic education that imperils the long-term health of our country. Too many Americans--especially young people--do not have the knowledge of our history and principles necessary to sustain our republic.

Recent national test results reveal the sad state of civic education in our schools. The 2022 report of the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that only 22 percent of eighth graders tested were "proficient" or better in their knowledge of civics, and proficiency in US history dropped to an anemic 13 percent. The Annenberg Policy Center reported in 2019 that only 39 percent of Americans could name the three branches of government, while its 2017 study showed that 37 percent could not name a single right in the First Amendment. How can we "keep" a republic, as Benjamin Franklin put it, if we don't know what a republic is? At a deeper level, the crisis is not simply about facts and information. If the next generations of Americans do not come to understand that our history and principles are good and that they merit their affection, our experiment in self-government could fail. Action is needed now to reverse the trend.

About the Author

Jeffrey Sikkenga is the Executive Director of the Ashbrook Center and a professor of political science at Ashland University. He has been a Senior Fellow at the Program on Constitutionalism and Democracy at the University of Virginia as well as a Visiting Scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is the author or coauthor of three books: The Supreme Court: Core Decisions (2020), History of American Political Thought (2019), and The Free Person and the Free Economy (2002). He lives in Ashland, OH.

David Davenport is a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University as well as a Senior Fellow at the Ashbrook Center. He is the former president of Pepperdine University (1985-2000), where he also served as a professor of law and public policy. David is the coauthor with Gordon Lloyd of three books: How Public Policy Became War (2019), Rugged Individualism: Dead or Alive? (2017), and The New Deal and Modern American Conservatism: A Defining Rivalry (2013). He lives in Coronado, CO.