Humility: An Unlikely Biography of America's Greatest Virtue

In our current age of arrogance, humility is associated with wimps and wallflowers -- a sign of failure, not success. A culture of narcissism and a society of self-promoters has obscured our past, blinding us to the hidden strength of humility.

Surprisingly enough, American humility is not an oxymoron. George Washington, James Madison, Abigail Adams, Abraham Lincoln, and Frederick Douglass: each of these humble heroes reminds us of what we were as a nation, and what we can become. No one -- not even these towering individuals of American achievement -- is naturally humble. Each of them had to contend with temptations including ambition, arrogance, and vanity. Out of these trials, their humility grew. The humility James Madison learned as a legislator helped him mold a young nation, despite his reputation as a timid and weak man. The humility of Abigail Adams fed her impossible resilience. Frederick Douglass's escape from enslavement, and struggle for the equality of all Americans, was a triumph of humility over humiliation.