Conservative commentator Scott Ruesterholz is pushing back against the woke revisionism of U.S. history with a new book aiming to preserve the legacies of some of the country's most beloved icons.
Ruesterholz, whose penned pieces in popular conservative news sites like Townhall.com and The Federalist, published his second book Tuesday. "The American Character: Forty Lives that Define Our National Spirit" puts a spotlight on trailblazers throughout U.S. history, putting emphasis on character traits like resilience, faith and drive.
"Over the last three or four years, I think we've seen this dramatic reevaluation of American history and try in this effort to argue that maybe American history isn't so great, that it's not a nation we should be so proud of. And as someone who has studied history, that bothers me," Ruesterholz told Fox News Digital in an interview on Monday. "I think that this is an exceptional country and it's important for us to remember that even though we're imperfect, we've had flaws… the story of America is one of overcoming those flaws and heading towards ideals, ideals like fairness, innovativeness, industriousness- and we've created the fairest society with the most opportunity for the most people in world history. And I think we need to make sure that we remember that as citizens and that as we are teaching our kids what it means to be an American that we remind them that this is a country you really should feel proud and grateful to be a citizen of."
The deceased subjects of "The American Character" range from presidents like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, technology innovators like Thomas Edison and Steve Jobs, entertainment icons like Walt Disney and James Stewart, civil rights leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the heroes of Flight 93.
In order to "encapsulate the entirety of the American story," it was important for Ruesterholz to strike a "balance" among political figures on both sides of the aisle like the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the left and former President George H.W. Bush on the right.
"I also think the most concerning aspect of our civil discourse today is we seem to view political opponents not as people with good intentions who have the wrong ideas but people who are fundamentally bad. And I don't think that is life," Ruesterholz said. "I don't think half of this country on either side wants bad things. We all want better lives for ourselves and for our kids. And so it's important to remember that people on the other side have noble intentions, just throwing ideas in your view."
Ruesterholz pointed to Ginsburg's longstanding friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia as a lesson that "we should be able to look to the people on the other side and see that they actually do have traits that we should emulate."
"Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I disagree with her but she fought through years of prejudice and got into the Supreme Court. If you don't find something in that life story that is inspirational, I think you're being, you know, too close-minded to it," Ruesterholz said.
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The "American Character" author says what ties the 40 subjects of his book together are their "tremendous setbacks" in their lives and that the country is better off because of their perseverance.
"What I love about history- it's not memorizing the dates. It's learning who were the decision makers and why. What was it that was motivating them? And that's really how you turn history into a story, into a narrative. And I think it's how it becomes insightful to the present because we remember the why, the people who create positive change," Ruesterholz said.
He continued, "And we're in an era of so much cynicism that I think it's important to step back and say cynics rarely achieve anything, right? It's these individuals who are completely the opposite of cynics. They believed in themselves, they believed in the power for positive change, believed in the country and, as a consequence, created lasting change that we all benefit from."
Ruesterholz previously made his literary debut last year with the political sci-fi thriller "Robert Wilson and the Invasion from Within."
