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Robert Spencer: Why I wrote a book about American history

Aug 4, 2020 6:00 pm By Robert Spencer

Advance copies of my latest book, Rating America’s Presidents: An America-First Look at Who Is Best, Who Is Overrated, and Who Was An Absolute Disaster, arrived today, and it is available for preorder now. It is the first book I’ve published in 10 years that wasn’t about some aspect of Islam, and only the second out of 20 books I’ve written that doesn’t deal with some aspect of jihad, Sharia, and related issues.

Many people have asked me why, after writing so much about Islam, I’ve suddenly put out a book about American history — so many people that I thought it necessary to write a brief explanation for you, the readers of Jihad Watch, who have stuck with me and kept reading all these years.

The short answer is, I wrote about American history because I am an American, I love America, and we see in Seattle, Portland and elsewhere these days that all too many young Americans don’t love America at all, but hate it with a sinister passion and are determined to destroy it. And so, as an incomparably better writer than I once put it, these fragments I have shored against the ruins. This book is a small attempt to explain what made America great and what still makes America great, and why everyone who is blessed to live in this country should be proud and grateful for the gift of being able to live in the freest, most generous, most decent and equitable society that the world has ever known. The book evaluates each American President from an America-First standpoint, that is, using the simple criterion of whether or not their administration was good for America and Americans, in terms of national security, the economy, and yes, the moral character of the nation.

Rating America’s Presidents is no dry academic exercise, any more than the pulling down of statues of American heroes such as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and Frederick Douglass by Leftist savages is an act of landscaping. It is a presentation of what we have to preserve and defend, and what the Left and the jihadis want to destroy. The Left is at war with America and so it is targeting American history. Its goal is to make Americans ashamed of America, ashamed of being American, ashamed of what America has done and stood for in the world. An ashamed, demoralized people will not fight to defend what it doesn’t even value itself. The Left’s war on our history is a battle for the very survival of our nation as a free society. Rating America’s Presidents is a weapon in that war, a tool to enable you to gain a fresh knowledge of and appreciation for the history of our land, so that you’ll be better equipped to stand, wherever you are and in whatever way you can, and resist and defeat the Left’s onslaught. A people without a history is a people ready to be enslaved. That is the Left’s endgame. Deny them the victory.

As for what I know about the subject, I’ve actually been studying American history, and specifically the Presidents of the United States, for even longer than I’ve been studying Islam. Those who love their home want to know all they can about it, and over the decades I’ve read hundreds of books on various aspects of American history. The subject has preoccupied me frequently, and has always been dear to my heart, starting from very early on: when I was seven or so, I learned to rattle off the names of all the Presidents in order (well, there were considerably fewer back then) and used to torment the host of a radio call-in show by calling in with what I thought were fascinating and fun facts about our history.

I hope you’ll find this book both fascinating and fun. You may not agree with all of my ratings of the individual Presidents — in fact, you probably won’t — but I know we can agree that the entire endeavor of studying American history and evaluating the Presidents and the good or harm they did is a labor of love — a labor of love for America the bountiful and magnanimous, America the just, America the free. America the beautiful.

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Comments

  1. gravenimage says

    Aug 4, 2020 at 6:34 pm

    Robert Spencer: Why I wrote a book about American history
    ………………..

    I’ll be looking forward to reading this!

  2. OTTER says

    Aug 4, 2020 at 7:00 pm

    Long live Robert Spencer! We love you.

  3. J Morgan says

    Aug 4, 2020 at 7:19 pm

    Sounds like a great read and at the perfect time, when places like Illinois want to abolish the study of History in the schools!

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 4, 2020 at 7:21 pm

      Yes–we all need to learn *more* about history.

      • Peter35 says

        Aug 5, 2020 at 3:37 pm

        Grimly true, G.I.. Actually some like NZ PM Jacinda Ardern just need to lean SOME history; to wit, that moslems have never in their 1400 yr history ever been our friends.

        • gravenimage says

          Aug 6, 2020 at 1:20 am

          +1

  4. Mo says

    Aug 4, 2020 at 8:37 pm

    I will be ordering it as soon as I’m able! Thank you so much for doing this. It is so needed right now! I’m watching my country disappear before my eyes.

  5. Walter Sieruk says

    Aug 4, 2020 at 10:58 pm

    President Trump has made many wise decisions such as moving the US embassy to Jerusalem ,which the Capital City of the State of Israel. Likewise ,President Trump wisely recognized that the Golan Heights as belonging to the Jewish State of Israel.

    Furthermore it was very good judgement of President to have sanctions against that aggressive and hostile Islamic tyrannical state of Iran.

    For from 1979 to the year 2020 it been forty years of horror and misery since the establishment of Islamic tyranny of Iran Based only lies, deceptions and deadly violence from those in power in that harshly oppressive “mullah tyranny ‘ of Iran . Just look what Islam which Sharia law has none to people of Iran.

    In other words, since 1979 this Sharia law Islamic regime was founded on false promises, Islamic violence and lying words of Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran in his deception of the Iranian people.

    To put this in another way, that Islamic regime was based in the foundation of false and empty promises. As well as lying words. After the fiendish Muslim clerics obtained total power in Iran they showed their true colors by having their Islamic state police who are called the “Revolutionary Guards truest the people on Iran in many heinously brutal and ruthless ways. As, for example, their brutal, callous misogyny against both girls and women. This statement is explained, in some detail, by the following.

    This tyrannical Islamic regime in Iran that so falsely and inappropriately has the word “republic” in its title. It should be made known that this called the “Iranian Revolution” turned out to be a hoax. Ayatollah Khomeini before achieving power in Iran in his lying and deceptions presented himself to the Iranian people as if he was someone who would be in power would give freedom to the people of Iran with any tyranny. The reality turned out to be just the opposite.

    As explained by a former Muslim as well as a man who took part in this Islamic “revolution “ ,who is now a Christian informs the reader of his book that “Prior to the Revolution no one ever imagined that other political parties would be suppressed under the rule of Ayatollah Khomeini. He had promised that all groups would have freedom to run their own campaigns after the Revolution. He even stated that governing system would be based on the decision of the people via a referendum. He never spoke of a system that would be governed by Islam. He even made clear that mullahs would not take part in any political activities, and that they would only be allowed to teach spirituality… Immediately after the Revolution, mullahs rushed into government offices to occupy the most important political l positions, making it difficult for the interim secular government to function … The mullah’s occupation of position was exactly the opposite to what the Ayatollah Khomeini had promised before the Revolution.”. [1]

    In other words, the insincere, disingenuous and outright lying Ayatollah Khomeini made many bogus promise he really had no intention of keeping. His lying deception worked, for he achieved great power in Iran.

    Furthermore, of the many heinously evils outcome s of that Islamic “revolution” is the extremely cruel, brutal and demonic misogyny of this hideous Islamic regime. Not only against women but even young girls. As explained by a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard member who defected to the West and how now lives in America his book also informs the reader about the malicious and murderous affront girls in Iran’s Evin prison which reads that those in power ,the “paraded teenage girls in front in front of me as they led them to their deaths. These girls were barely out of their childhood, barely old enough to think of themselves, much less form thoughts against the state. They knew nothing about the machinations of politics. They were innocent in every sense of the word and certainty innocent of trumped –up charges that led to their imprisonment. Yet they suffered fates too brutal for even the most vicious criminal. ..Their few remaining moments of life had been filled with the level of abuse that few can imagine…The author further states “They tortured and killed young girls, in God’s name and before their execution they raped them because they believed that if a girl dies virgin, she will go to heaven, and they wanted to deny them this reward.” [2]

    This is as malice -filled and viciously wicked as can possibly be. This, very much, reflects the wisdom found in POOR RICHARDS’ ALMANAC in which Benjamin Franklin printed “Those who are feared are also hated.”

    [1] ISLAM THE HOUSE I LEFT BEHIND by Daniel Shayesteh . Pages 90, 91

    [2] A TIME TO BETRAY by Reza Kahlili. Pages 2,3. 117.

    With such wisdom President Trump is outstanding as an excellent Chief Executive of the United States of America.

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 4, 2020 at 11:07 pm

      Yes–and most of these girls were “married” to their guards and raped the night before their executions, thanks to the widespread Islamic folk belief that virgins go to paradise. Cheap plastic knicknacks were then given to the girls’ parents as their “dowries”, to prove that they had been raped.

    • maria says

      Aug 5, 2020 at 5:28 am

      Agree 100%

  6. Saleem Smith says

    Aug 4, 2020 at 11:05 pm

    Writing this book must have been a refreshing break for Spencer. To have stepped away from the putrid muck of Islam for however many hours it took him to write it must have felt like a cool breeze blowing through a Caribbean island. The man has done us all a huge favor in terms of exposing the truth about Islam and this book on America is probably a top notch read.

    We ex-Muslims living with Islam’s formal and informal death penalty for apostasy know that the cult of Mohammedanism is a disgusting fraud.

    Here is a recent statement from a group of Bangladeshi apostates living in the UK explaining the reasons why they have abandoned Islam:

    “One who claims to be a messenger of God is expected to live a saintly life. He must not be given to lust, he must not be a sexual pervert, and he must not be a rapist, a highway robber, a war criminal, a mass murderer or an assassin. One who claims to be a messenger of God must have a superior character. He must stand above the vices of the people of his time. Yet Muhammad’s life is that of a gangster godfather. He raided merchant caravans, looted innocent people, massacred entire male populations and enslaved the women and children. He raped the women captured in war after killing their husbands and told his followers that it is okay to have sex with their captives (Qur’an 33:50). He assassinated those who criticized him and executed them when he came to power and became de facto despot of Arabia. Muhammad was bereft of human compassion. He was an obsessed man with his dreams of grandiosity and could not forgive those who stood in his way…”

    The statement continues,

    “Muhammad was a narcissist, like Hitler, Saddam or Stalin. He was astute and knew how to manipulate people, but his emotional intelligence was less evolved than that of a 6-year-old child. He simply could not feel the pain of others. He brutally massacred thousands of innocent people and pillaged their wealth. His ambitions were big and as a narcissist he honestly believed he is entitled to do as he pleased and commit all sorts of crimes and his evil deeds are justified.”

    • Idol and Icon says

      Aug 5, 2020 at 5:47 am

      Thank you for your comments, well said. And though I’m not an American Dr Spencer’s article above is excellent and heart felt. I look forward to reading the book.
      My best wishes to you and your friends, stay safe and don’t let the animals silence you.

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 6, 2020 at 1:21 am

      Great to see you posting again, Saleem.

  7. Ray Jarman says

    Aug 5, 2020 at 12:56 am

    Mr. Spencer, I am looking forward to reading your opinion concerning one of my favorite and often overlooked presidents, James K. Polk. One of my favorite statements is from Maya Angelou who wrote, “I have great respect for the past. If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going.” The more we know and understand why certain events took place, the better we can understand ourselves.

  8. Debra says

    Aug 5, 2020 at 5:47 am

    Bravo, Mr. Spencer, well done. I look forward to reading your viewpoints on our American presidents. Your insight, intelligence, strength, love of country, and good nature make you a national treasure.

  9. Unknown guy says

    Aug 5, 2020 at 6:49 am

    Zakir naik has said that jihad does not mean holy war. Harb-un muqadassa means holy war and it is not mentioned in the quran. Can anyone explain this?

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 6, 2020 at 1:26 am

      Taqiyya.

      • Unknown guy says

        Aug 6, 2020 at 2:47 am

        Saying taqiyya doesn’t disprove the above position of muslims

        • gravenimage says

          Aug 8, 2020 at 2:21 am

          Anyone who has read the Qur’an can see its many verses of sacralized violence. Playing word games does not change this as “Unknown guy” pretends.

          https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/violence.aspx

  10. Linde Barrera says

    Aug 5, 2020 at 7:03 am

    I will order Robert Spencer’s newest book.

  11. Kepha says

    Aug 5, 2020 at 9:52 am

    Let me guess. The O ranks near the bottom; with Jimmeh Carter ranking not too far behind.

    Now, in the immortal words of Millard Filmore…

  12. Daniel Triplett says

    Aug 5, 2020 at 10:06 am

    Looking forward to reading Robert’s latest book, “Rating America’s Presidents: An America-First Look at Who Is Best, Who Is Overrated, and Who Was An Absolute Disaster.” I’ve learned so much from this man over the last 10 years when I first heard of him. A prolific writer with 20 books, good Lord, not many people could do that, especially with non-fiction which requires a whole lot more work with research and facts. With his wisdom and talent, I’m sure he could write a great book on any random subject picked from a hat.

    Robert’s style makes Islam, or anything else, easy to understand. Fascinating and never boring. Any open-minded person can quickly grasp the grave existential threat of Islam by reading any of his books, and be inspired to pitch in and contribute something useful to win the 1400 year war.

    Winning wars requires national political will to fight. I’m eager to learn about Robert’s insights on this important subject of politics and CINC authority, and tie that in to what he’s already taught me about Islam. Glad to see he wrote his book from an “America-First” perspective, which after all must be the primary principle driving every president, and the yardstick by which every POTUS is measured.

  13. David Darman says

    Aug 5, 2020 at 10:59 am

    Looking forward to read new book to see if and how our current pussy-grabber-in-chief has been rated.

    • Wellington says

      Aug 5, 2020 at 12:32 pm

      Pathetic comment and revealing of the high probability that you know very little about the history of the American presidency.

      • David Darman says

        Aug 5, 2020 at 3:04 pm

        Why do you say that? Have you not heard the tape made of this Trump “grab-em-by-the-pussy” remark exposed during his campaign? See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_Access_Hollywood_tape

        Who’s the pathetic one?

        I have not otherwise commented upon the history of American Presidents and have not purported to be well informed thereon so I don’t comprehend your observation about my knowledge or lack thereof on the subject. What I do know is that Trump’s failure to effectively lead the US when the pandemic broke out has cost many thousands of American lives or would you dispute that?
        Look, I respect RS for his scholarship on all things Islam and I also think he has a witty writing style, however that expertise and wit does not, ipso fact, translate into a wise sociopolitical philosophy. On the contrary, it tends to make one tunnel visioned, myopic to the point of supporting a narcissistic demagogue who cares more about his image than he does about the people and nation he was elected to lead.

        • Peter35 says

          Aug 5, 2020 at 3:51 pm

          Yet another one who has been told by the ‘loony-left’ that he must hate Trump, and does.
          Trump says what he does, and does what he says—I like him for that. And the ‘plandemic?’ We haven’t been here before, and frankly I’m sick of all these monday morning quarterbacks….

        • Henry Mansfield says

          Aug 5, 2020 at 4:31 pm

          I’ve lived through U.S. Presidents since Nixon, memorizing the Gettysburg Address at a very young age for a Grandpa who bet me I couldn’t and taking part in a mock election at the age of 9.
          I had to play the part of John Anderson against other kids playing Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. It fostered an interest in the process and the personalities of those with the ego necessary to run for the office. I’m the type who will buy Robert Spencer’s book to add to a decent collection.
          The subject draws writers as history unfolds and facts are uncovered.
          FDR was an icon during his own lifetime, yet more recent writers look at his court-stacking plans and shudder at the precedent it would have set. Even before then our leader in WW1, Wilson, has drawn harsh criticisms.
          Trump’s record will get the full review, and I for one think historians in the future will look at the ‘big picture’ of his tenure and his performance will be viewed positively.
          Also, the media and Trump’s Democrat opposition deserve a lot of credit. They’ve been so awful in their attacks/ machinations that they’ve made Donald John Trump something of a sympathetic figure…no easy feat.

        • gravenimage says

          Aug 6, 2020 at 1:29 am

          Elsewhere David Darmand referred to the stalwart Robert Spencer as a “neanderthal”.

  14. tim gallagher says

    Aug 5, 2020 at 6:33 pm

    Good on you, Robert, for branching out into this new area. I believe that you are an intelligent, truth telling type of person(despite the threats that you receive, you won’t be silenced) and your judgement on all aspects of life are always pretty much spot on. All those books you’ve written,(all that research) plus Jihad Watch and the interviews you do, I don’t know where you get your energy from. You are one of those people who has achieved a hell of lot and certainly woken many people up to the unpalatable truth about islam’s nature. You are definitely someone that I admire (there are many people that I don’t admire to the slightest degree) and you have done a lot of good by waking people up to the truth.

  15. Tim says

    Aug 9, 2020 at 4:43 pm

    I look forward to this book. It should be very entertaining. I’ve never gone further than to reckon my Top 5. However, Mr. Trump has forced me into my Top 6. They would be; Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, Trump*, Polk & Reagan. (*Pres. Trump isn’t done yet)

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