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134 Unit 2 ■ Appealing to an Audience

© Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Do not distribute.
On Patriotism

Donald Kagan

THE TEXT IN CONTEXT The National Endowment for the Humanities
Donald Kagan (b. 1932), a historian, classicist, and
professor at Yale University, published the following
essay in the Yale Review in October 2011, ten years
after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on Americans. Professor
Kagan continues to write about the need for a patriotic education as part of democracy.
Professor Kagan won the national humanities medal in 2002.

n October 2001, without dissent, Congress who don’t approve of their country’s laws and
Irequested that the president designate way of life have the right and opportunity to
September 11 “Patriot Day,” a national day of change them by legal process. Failing in such an
remembrance of the attacks by international attempt, they are free to leave the country with
terrorists on two American cities that killed all their property. By staying they are tacitly
thousands of innocent civilians. When they had accepting the laws of the country and the prin-
recovered from their shock after the attacks, ciples on which those laws are based. They are
most Americans reacted in two ways: They free to doubt them and even to denounce them,
clearly and powerfully supported their govern- but they are morally bound to observe them.
ment’s determination to use military force to For Americans, as for citizens of any free coun-
prevent future attacks by capturing or killing try, there really is a social contract like those
the perpetrators and tearing out their organi- imagined by the political philosophers, and that
zations root and branch. And, to this end, they contract provides legitimacy. People who tacitly
supported the removal of the leaders of states accept that contract have the moral obligation
that supported, abetted, or gave refuge to ter- to defend and support the country they have
rorists unless those leaders abandoned such chosen as their own — that is, to be patriotic.
practices. Most Americans also expressed a It seems to me, moreover, that Americans
new sense of unity and an explicit love for their have especially good reasons for belief in and
country that had not been seen for a long time. devotion to their country. America has been a
Not every country deserves the devotion and beacon of liberty to the world since its creation
patriotic support of its citizens. Dictatorships of and was especially so in the twentieth century.
whatever kind have no right to these commit- The September 11 attacks produced a wave of
ments, for they rule over unfree, often unwill- vilification against America from “intellectuals”
ing, people as if over slaves; they lack moral at home and abroad, but it is worth remem-
legitimacy. But citizens of free countries like the bering what Americans did in the twentieth
United States can vote in elections with real century. They helped save Europe from German
choices for lawmakers and leaders, and those domination in two world wars. After World War II

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