I was afraid that in relying on a review I might have been unfair to Alan Wolfe in this post. But reading this interview in Mother Jones has assuaged my conscience.
Wolfe confirms my worst suspicions by offering his list of “great” figures in American history:
MJ: Who in American history would you put in the greatness camp? Who’s made this a priority?
AW: Well, for the first hundred years of the existence of our nation-state, the greatness idea was essentially a conservative idea. So its great advocates were Alexander Hamilton, at the time of the constitutional convention; John Marshall, very conservative US Supreme Court Justice; Abraham Lincoln; and, into the turn of the century, Theodore Roosevelt. I also argue that, in the 20th century, the mood shifted, and greatness swung in the direction of the Democrats, and of liberals. So that Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Teddy’s cousin, and the Kennedy-Johnson years really embodied the idea of greatness in the 20th century.
This list is virtually a who’s who of the great centralizers (UPDATE: and proponents of territorial expansionism, as Marcus points out) of American history – the political figures who made a point of disregarding the constitutional limits placed on government power in the service of their agendas. You may think (as I do) that at least some of these men were justified in what they did. It is, for instance, hard not to credit Lincoln for extirpating the scourge of slavery from our shores, despite the cost in blood and freedom that it required.
But that’s kinda the rub. Wolfe doesn’t seem to recognize that all these projects of “greatness” have costs associated with them that may well outweigh their purported benefits. I mean, who now looks back on the presidency of LBJ as one of greatness?
I just wish that people who advocate this or that policy of “greatness” or “purpose” or “world-transformation” would be up front about what following said policy will entail. Like, “American boys (and, increasingly, girls) will die and kill to implement my vision about what a better world would look like.” Could such a policy be sold in all candor to the public? Just asking.
Wolfe is optimistic that we can be bullied into it, though:
MJ: Turning back to home, a big challenge is going to be to convince Americans that they have more to gain than to lose from a stronger national government. What are the prospects for making that case?
AW: It is difficult, and I don’t pretend otherwise. As I argue in the book, greatness has really been the minority taste, where we seem to be more comfortable with the other tradition generally. Nonetheless, one of the ideas that really emerges from a study of the past is the idea of using the presidency in what TR would have called a tutorial manner, bully pulpit, politicians who are willing to engage with the American electorate in the form of playing an educative role. We’re probably a long way from that. Right now we seem to be in a more populistic kind of mood, where the people just express themselves and politicians run around and try to do whatever they’re articulating at any particular moment. I hope that this mood is one that was produced by the initial shock of 911, and that as we have more time to absorb that into our consciousness, we’ll come to realize how unsatisfactory that way is of responding, and Americans will come to appreciate that politics does involve leadership, and that a leader is one who speaks to our higher ideals and then tries to move us in those directions.
Get it? The president can “educate” us into doing the right thing. And given that the office has of late been occupied by men of such sterling character, who wouldn’t jump at the chance to be educated by them?
(Also, what’s up with the puffball interviewer at the allegedly leftist Mother Jones? Could they ask Wolfe one tough question? Just because someone bashes George Bush doesn’t necessarily mean he’s on the side of the angels, y’know.)
A good corrective to proponents of “greatness” would be this essay by Robert Higgs.
End of rant.
A Thinking Reed 
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