Product Description

Who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance? Why was it written? What does it mean?

Our Pledge of Allegiance tells the story behind the familiar words that schoolchildren learn and many recite every day. Written in clear and child-friendly language for readers in grades 3-6, the book also features children's illustrations that portray the Pledge from a child's perspective.

Syl Sobel is a former newspaper reporter, a lawyer, and director of communications for a government agency.

His daughters make their debut as illustrators with this book.

Other books by Syl Sobel:

How the U.S. Government Works (Barron's 1999)

The U.S. Constitution and You (Barron's 2001)

Presidential Elections and Other Cool Facts 2d ed. (Barron's 2001)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #989520 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 28 pages

Customer Reviews

Interesting, Informative, and Fun.....
Every morning children begin their school day with the Pledge of Allegiance. They stand, face the flag, put their right hands over their hearts, and recite those now familiar words together. But who wrote those famous words and why? When were they written, and what do they mean? Syl Sobel answers these, and other important questions in his well researched, interesting and informative book, Our Pledge Of Allegiance. His entertaining text is written in an engaging, easy to read, conversational style, and is chock full of history, intriguing fun facts, and trivia. Simple, charming illustrations by Mr Sobel's daughters bring a child's perspective to the text, and adds to the fun. Perfect for youngsters 7 and older, Our Pledge Of Allegiance makes a wonderful addition to elementary classroom libraries. This is non-fiction at its very best, and is a little treasure that shouldn't be missed.

Our Pledge of Allegiance, by Syl Sobel
Syl Sobel is the author of a book on the Pledge of Allegiance, and he is very informative. The book could use some updating with more historical information about the topic addressed. For example, the Pledge was the origin of the stiff-arm salute that was adopted later by the National Socialist German Workers Party. The early salute for the Pledge of Allegiance was the straight-arm salute. Francis Bellamy was the author of the Pledge (1892) and cousin to Edward Bellamy, author of an international bestseller that launched the nationalism movement. Edward's book was translated into every major language, including German. Francis and Edward were both self-proclaimed socialists in the Nationalism movement and they promoted military socialism. They wanted government to take over all schools and impose robotic chanting to flags. The Pledge's early right-arm salute was not an ancient Roman salute, and the 'ancient Roman salute' myth came from the Pledge. In addition to the notorious salute, American socialists (e.g. Edward Bellamy teamed with the Theosophical Society) also bear some blame for the notorious symbol usd by the National Socialist German Workers Party. While Edward worked with the Theosophical Society, the same symbol was used. It was used as alphabetical symbolism for socialism, and adopted later by German socialists as their flag symbol. Although an ancient symbol, was altered for use as overlapping S-letters for 'socialism.' It was deliberately turned 45 degrees counter clockwise and always oriented in the S-direction. Similar alphabetic symbolism is still visible as Volkswagen logos. People were persecuted for refusing to perform robotic chanting to the national flag at the same time in the USA and Germany (to the American flag, and to the German symbol flag). All of the above are modern discoveries by America's leading authority on the Pledge of Allegiance, the author of "Pledge of Allegiance Secrets."