A Certain Idea of America

From Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author Peggy Noonan, a tender and heartfelt tribute to the people and principles that make America worth loving

For nearly twenty-five years, Peggy Noonan's beloved Wall Street Journal column has reminded us of what is great—and good—about America. Who better to turn to for guidance in this age of political crisis and division?

In A Certain Idea of America, Noonan presents a vision of what America has been, is, and can be. Whether writing about the American founders, Ulysses S. Grant, or her Aunt Jane Jane, Noonan winsomely demonstrates that the old-fashioned principles that made us the land of the free are those that we still need today. She calls balls and strikes on the political shenanigans of recent leaders, presenting as counterexamples of maturity and duty figures ranging from John Paul II to the heroes of 9/11. Above all, she writes with love—love and an unshakeable faith that America can be virtuous, that American ideals are worth dying for, and that beauty and heroism that can be found in our neighbors and in ourselves.