Bill Bennett thinks America is a great country, with an exciting and exceptional story. In the academic world, that makes him almost as controversial a historian as he was as U.S. secretary of education in the 1980s.

He has written three volumes of American history, under the title America: The Last Best Hope, reflecting on what Abraham Lincoln said about America.

A history problem pops up in surveys about high schoolers’ ignorance of basic American history. National standards for teaching history have been proposed as a solution. Yet those discussions often become bogged down in a debate over who should decide what to include. Oversimplified, the debate circles around whether the American experiment is a remarkable achievement in world history. Or is America just a sorry imperialistic mess created by a bunch of racist white men?

Bennett lines up on the side of the remarkable story. He sees great nobility in how Gen. Ulysses S. Grant refused to arrest Robert E. Lee as a traitor after the Southern surrender at Appomattox. President Andrew Johnson, on the other hand, wanted to hang a few of the Confederate traitors. Grant threatened to resign rather than go back on his word to Lee and his army. It was a noble step for Grant, whose greatness as a wartime and peacetime military leader is sometimes overlooked because of his later record as president. “I will resign rather than execute any order to arrest Lee or his commanders so long as they obey the law!” Grant told President Johnson. The new president had to back down from his plan to take vengeance on the Confederate leadership.

Bennett writes clearly about the sins of slavery and oppression of Indians. Yet he knows enough world history to see that the American glass is more full than empty.

“An abiding sense of American greatness, of American purpose, of American exceptionalism has long characterized many of our leaders and tens of millions of the rest of us as well,” he writes. “Many express doubts about American motives on the world stage. Some Americans seem ready to believe the worst about our leaders and our country.” Bennett offers a different perspective.

He wisely celebrates free-market principles in reviewing Thomas Edison’s light-bulb invention. “They didn’t attempt to stifle the electric light in order to protect the gas industry,” he writes. “Market vitality brings more and better products to more people at lower prices. It offers better lives for millions.”

What Bennett offers is a very readable alternative to the late Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States. Zinn’s book is popular in college classes, but his relentless focus is on the shortcomings of America.

Bennett’s volumes ought to receive at least equal time. In one step of his career Bennett taught at Boston University along with Zinn, who died last year. “I encouraged my students to take his course and my course,” Bennett said in a recent talk in Indianapolis. “It made their heads spin.” But they got two sides of the story.

Bennett’s perspective avoids the weaknesses of a traditional liberal perspective on American history with its bent toward political correctness, the tendency to find fault with traditional heroes and the praise for leaders who expand the scope of the federal government. Yet Bennett avoids what might be called the Christian America theme that is more characteristic of textbooks from Bob Jones University or A Beka and the three volumes by Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Light and the Glory, From Sea to Shining Sea and Sounding Forth the Trumpet. Marshall and Manuel fill in a gap in American history, giving readers a providential emphasis in reviewing God’s works of special grace in times of spiritual revival.

Bennett takes note of some of the Lord’s special works of grace in the First Great Awakening, without the depth and detail of the books of Marshall and Manuel.

Bennett’s books could make a special contribution to history teaching because they might gain some acceptability in public school curriculum, given his doctorate, his stature as a former secretary of education and his communication skills.

Bennett writes in simple declarative sentences, an improvement over many history textbooks. He has a doctorate in political philosophy and a law degree, so he knows the world is complicated. He also has a daily radio call-in show, so he knows the importance of clarity in communication.

He also thinks the free market rewards the more optimistic narrative, because people like to read about real heroism. “None of the drama of the race to the moon is captured in textbooks today,” he has noted. “The Soviets had bragged that their earlier victories in space proved that atheist Marxism was true. Isn’t John F. Kennedy’s legacy worth a more dramatic and compelling treatment than students are given today?”

Bennett’s critics may find fault with his American greatness theme. But they can’t accuse him of putting students to sleep with boredom.

For parents who want to supplement whatever other American history their students have learned, Bennett’s three volumes offer a useful option.