An essay on the American contribution and the democratic idea

The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Essay On The American Contribution And The Democratic Idea, by Winston Churchill [The Author is the American Winston Churchill not the British] This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: An Essay On The American Contribution And The Democratic Idea Author: Winston Churchill Last Updated: March 6, 2009 Release Date: October 6, 2006 [EBook #5399] Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICAN CONTRIBUTION *** Produced by David Widger AN ESSAY ON THE AMERICAN CONTRIBUTION AND THE DEMOCRATIC IDEA By Winston Churchill Contents I. II. III. IV. V. I. Failure to recognize that the American, is at heart an idealist is to lack understanding of our national character. Two of our greatest interpreters proclaimed it, Emerson and William James. In a recent address at the Paris Sorbonne on "American Idealism," M. Firmin Roz observed that a people is rarely justly estimated by its contemporaries. The French, he says, have been celebrated chiefly for the skill of their chefs and their vaudeville actors, while in the disturbed 'speculum mundi' Americans have appeared as a collection of money grabbers whose philosophy is the dollar. It remained for the war to reveal the true nature of both peoples.