The American Course

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Globe-trotting golfer Tom Coyne has finally come home. And he’s ready to play all of it. After playing hundreds of courses overseas in the birthplace of golf,​ Coyne, the bestselling author of A Course Called Ireland and A Course Called Scotland, returns to his own birthplace and delivers a “heartfelt, rollicking ode to golf…[as he] describes playing golf in every state of the union, including Alaska: 295 courses, 5,182 holes, 1.7 million total yards” (The Wall Street Journal). In the span of one unforgettable year, Coyne crisscrosses the country in search of its greatest golf experience, playing every course to ever host a US Open, along with more than two hundred hidden gems and heavyweights, visiting all fifty states to find a better understanding of his home country and countrymen. Coyne’s journey begins where the US Open and US Amateur got their start, historic Newport Country Club in Rhode Island. As he travels from the oldest and most elite of links to the newest and most democratic, Coyne finagles his way onto coveted first tees (Shinnecock, Oakmont, Chicago GC) between rounds at off-the-map revelations, like ranch golf in Eastern Oregon and homemade golf in the Navajo Nation. He marvels at the golf miracle hidden in the sand hills of Nebraska and plays an unforgettable midnight game under bright sunshine on the summer solstice in Fairbanks, Alaska. More than just a tour of the best golf the United States has to offer, Coyne’s quest connects him with hundreds of American golfers, each from a different background but all with one thing in common: pride in welcoming Coyne to their course. Trading stories and swing tips with caddies, pros, and golf buddies for the day, Coyne adopts the wisdom of one of his hosts in Minnesota: the best courses are the ones you play with the best people. But, in the end, only one stop on Coyne’s journey can be ranked the Great American Golf Course. Throughout his travels, he invites golfers to debate and help shape his criteria for judging the quintessential American course. Should it be charmingly traditional or daringly experimental? An architectural showpiece or a natural wonder? Countless conversations and gut instinct lead him to seek out a course that feels bold and idealistic, welcoming yet imperfect, with a little revolutionary spirit and a damn good hot dog at the turn. He discovers his long-awaited answer in the most unlikely of places. Packed with fascinating tales from American golf history, comic road misadventures, illuminating insights into course design, and many a memorable round with local golfers and celebrity guests alike, A Course Called America is “a delightful, entertaining book even nongolfers can enjoy” (Kirkus Reviews).

For too long we’ve lacked a compact, inexpensive, authoritative, and compulsively readable book that offers American readers a clear, informative, and inspiring narrative account of their country. Such a fresh retelling of the American story is especially needed today, to shape and deepen young Americans’ sense of the land they inhabit, help them to understand its roots and share in its memories, all the while equipping them for the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship in American society The existing texts simply fail to tell that story with energy and conviction. Too often they reflect a fragmented outlook that fails to convey to American readers the grand trajectory of their own history. This state of affairs cannot continue for long without producing serious consequences. A great nation needs and deserves a great and coherent narrative, as an expression of its own self-understanding and its aspirations; and it needs to be able to convey that narrative to its young effectively. Of course, it goes without saying that such a narrative cannot be a fairy tale of the past. It will not be convincing if it is not truthful. But as Land of Hope brilliantly shows, there is no contradiction between a truthful account of the American past and an inspiring one. Readers of Land of Hope will find both in its pages.

The text begins with the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the United States, explaining how the Declaration contains all the underlying principles and truths that our country was founded on, and continues on through the writing of the Constitution and the forming of the government, and how the founding fathers incorporated all the fundamental principles within the Constitution. The program next discusses the challenges our country faced in the past and how they were eventually solved, and how those same problems apply to America today.

A broad survey of American intellectual history ; a history of the ideas, the thinkers and the institutions that have mattered most to Americans. Lectures 1- 36.

For over two decades Dr. Skousen taught the American Heritage and the Constitution seminar course to several hundred thousand people. Students observed that he taught from a brown binder of notes and background material. They therefore asked that he publish his lecture notes. This is his “Brown Binder” and its contents. It contains two separate teaching materials under each section: 1. Lecture handouts with blanks which are filled in by the students during the presentation of the material (answers are now included). 2. Comprehensive background material which Dr. Skousen used as reference material.

During the winter of 1776-1777, Lieutenant General John Burgoyne, who at the time was second in command of Britain’s Northern Army (based in Canada), proposed his “Thoughts for Conducting the War from the Side of Canada” to King George III. Unhappy with the lack of success during the Northern Campaign of 1776, King George approved Burgoyne’s campaign plan and chose Burgoyne to lead the Northern Army. Burgoyne’s plan was a simple two-pronged attack from Quebec to seize Albany and secure the Lake Champlain-Lake George-Hudson River Waterway. After seizing Albany, Burgoyne expected to linkup with a third force attacking north from New York City. While strategic policies and decisions negatively affected Burgoyne’s campaign and the third force from New York City never really materialized, Burgoyne’s campaign concept was both feasible and achievable. Of the two forces attacking south from Canada, Burgoyne commanded the main attack force of 9,000-plus soldiers and Brigadier General Barry St Leger commanded a 2,000 man diversionary force. In his “Thoughts for Conducting the War from the Side of Canada,” Burgoyne intended to seize Fort Ticonderoga and develop a theater logistics base before advancing, via Lake Champlain-Lake George-Hudson River waterway, on Albany. Simultaneous with Burgoyne’s advance on Albany from the north, St Leger was advancing on Albany from the west, using the St Lawrence River-Lake Erie-Mohawk River waterway as a his axis of advance. Ultimately, Burgoyne believed that both attacks would make the Americans to split their forces in order to defend Albany. While the British tackled supply problems, the Americans seized the initiative by harassing and delaying the British and destroying the only usable roads. By September, the Americans were dictating the terms of each engagement and controlling the tempo of the campaign.