By Richard Maybury
Buy it from Bluestocking Press
Richard Maybury was once a speaker at a California Home Educators Association convention. He spoke on George Washington. I heard the tape of his speech, and I'm not surprised that they never asked him back. It was rather painful for me to have the rose-colored glasses stripped away and to hear one of my favorite founding fathers called a military failure. I am a black and white person, and I want my history to fit into a neat little box. Sigh.
I'm afraid it's hard to argue with much of Mr. Maybury's historical perspective. He so patiently takes you by the hand and leads you through history, step by step, until you end up where you may not want to be. He uses the vehicle of letters from "Uncle Eric" to his nephew Chris, explaining various complex economic concepts and political issues in an understandable way. His first "Uncle Eric" book, Whatever Happened to Penny Candy, was wildly successful because of his straightforward explanations.
Maybury is a classic libertarian, and this view is evident in all of his books. Many Christian homeschooling families read his books, but there is no evidence that I can see that he shares a Christian perspective. He has a very moral framework for his views, which is not uncomfortable for a Christian reader, but he depends on a foundation of natural law for his paradigm. He repeats his Two Laws in each of his books: "Do all you have agreed to do" and "Do not encroach on other persons or their property." I prefer the standard given by Christ in Matt. 22:37-40: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it; you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
Yet many of the conclusions made by Maybury's books are thought-provoking. His book on World War I is really the first half of a two-part series on both of the "great wars," and both books frequently reference his other works. It is no surprise that Maybury believes that America should not have been involved in either of the world wars; in fact, he makes the point that the only just war in which America has been involved was the War for Independence. He references the warnings of the founders against foreign entanglements, and I heartily agree with him that many of the messes we find ourselves in today are because we have consistently ignored this good advice. He makes a good case that it is necessary for our country to conduct trade with other nations, but military alliances are dangerous to our sovereign nation. He covers ten deadly ideas that lead to war, and he holds Switzerland's militia-style defense strategy as a model for how we ought to approach our military defense.
The events which led to World War I are very complex, and Maybury does a good job of taking the reader step-by-step through these events, showing how they led to America's involvement in the war. Even if you don't agree with his conclusions, it is good for older students (and adults who like to see everything through rose-colored glasses!) to see the other side of the story, what he calls the "non-statist" view. I have found it painful to have some of my views of history shaken up a bit, but I am glad to have the opportunity to exercise my discernment a little, and to be reminded to check out the facts from source material as much as possible.
A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government. —Thomas Jefferson
