This manual is an authorized updated student version of the book “The 5,000 Year Leap” by W. Cleon Skousen. The 28 Principles of Freedom must be understood and perpetuated by every people who desire peace, prosperity, and freedom.
While teaching at Brigham Young University, the author, Dr. Skousen, learned that by having students fill in key words as they go through the material, they would retain the information they read by as much as 60% longer. This is the format used in this student study manual. Answers to the blanks are in the back of the book.
Readers will learn that adherence to the Founders’ beliefs during the past 200 years has brought about more progress than was made in the previous 5,000 years–thus the title “5,000 Year Leap.”
Here are the 28 principles in brief:
- The Genius of Natural Law
- Virtuous and Moral People
- Virtuous and Moral Leaders
- The Role of Religion
- The Role of the Creator
- All Men are Created Equal
- Equal Rights–Not Equal Things
- Man’s unalienable rights
- The Role of Revealed Law
- Sovereignty of the People
- Who Can Alter the Government?
- Advantages of a Republic
- Protection Against Human Frailty
- Property Rights Essential to Liberty
- Free-Market Economics
- The Separation of Powers
- Checks and Balances
- Importance of a Written Constitution
- Limiting and Defining the Powers of Government
- Majority Rule, Minority Rights
- Strong Local Self-government
- Government by Law, Not by Men
- Importance of an Educated Electorate
- Peace through Strength
- Avoid Entangling Alliances
- Protecting the Role of the Family
- Avoiding the Burden of Debt
- The Founders’ Sense of Manifest Destiny
