Instructions
Summarize this information from Charles Murray’s text, Coming Apart, chapter 6.
1. What were European reactions to early American society (the “American experiment”), good and bad? Give specifics.
2. Cite the Benjamin Franklin quote on page 133 in your paper, and then explain what you think it means. What other famous Americans expressed similar sentiments?
3. In turn, describe the “founding virtues” of industriousness, honesty, marriage, and religiosity, that our Enlightenment-driven founders thought were essential aspects of successful American democracy.
4. Bring us up-to-date. Where is American society today? Do we still have the level of virtue required to sustain our American society? Why did McGuffey Readers disappear from our schools? In the new, modern America, where schools no longer inculcate morality into our children, do you think that morality and virtue are still required to preserve American freedom, prosperity, and civil society?