Peggy Noonan read Charles de Gaulle’s memoirs many years ago, but she has never forgotten his opening line: “All my life I have had a certain idea of ​​France.”

That sentence struck Noonan. “I’ve remembered that sentence for decades because after I read it, I immediately thought: I’m exactly the same, in that I’ve always had a certain idea of ​​America,” says Noonan. “And it’s an idea that really starts with love, with appreciation, with a sense that America is something special — and historically has been.”

In her new book, A certain idea of ​​Americathe historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Wall Street Journal shares more about her enduring faith in our country and makes a powerful case for why its ideals are worth protecting. This week, The Sunday newspaper spoke with Noonan about her views on our recent election and its aftermath, and why she will never lose faith and hope in what she calls “our ongoing miracle America.”

A CONVERSATION WITH PEGGY NOONAN

We just had a follow-up election. How do you feel in its wake?

There is a small division in my nature: in the long run I am a pessimist. But in the short term, I wake up most days and I’m in a pretty good mood. So it is difficult for me to connect my long-term thoughts and their implications with my short-term experience of life. That’s a complicated and elaborate way of saying: I feel fine.

I’m not a Trump supporter, but I had a feeling this might come. I felt like the American people were about to choose a path, as opposed to a person, and I’m not shocked by the path they chose.

My thought – at least for the short term – is this: hold on to your hats. The great story continues to unfold.

What would you say to those who are concerned about America right now?

The first thing I want to say is that it’s always good to remember that if you’re worried, the other side is worried too; they just worry about other things.

In our euphoric victories and painful, terrible, devastating defeats, we continually forget that no victory is forever, and no defeat is forever. If you are angry about the political situation in America right now, there are things you can do.

First you just absorb it. Give yourself a little time to absorb.

Second, don’t stop fighting for what you think is right.

Third, remember that this is a democracy. The demo rules; the people rule. Sometimes the majority will do things that you just don’t like, and sometimes they will do things that you really like.

And in the short term: disconnect just a little bit. Everyone has had an intense time. Give yourself a little break from the hypervigilance we’re all feeling right now.

You have been called a “moral compass” for Americans who value character, love of country and civility. How can we all, regardless of who we voted for, bring more of these three qualities into our conversations with each other?

I don’t quite know the answer, but one way might be to remember that we’ve had a very turbulent history and a lot of problems, and yet we’ve never given up on each other – until now.

We fought a civil war in which we were divided in every way – morally, geographically, politically and culturally – and we did not give up on each other. We held each other.

Let me give you an anecdote that I think about a lot because it is such an American moment for me:

It was April 1865 and the Confederacy had collapsed, defeated by the North. Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, finally admitted to himself that it was over. He contacted Ulysses S. Grant, they met and Grant accepted Lee’s surrender. We all know that, but there’s a small part of that story that sticks in my mind.

Grant and Lee quickly agreed on the rules of the surrender. Grant showed astonishing grace and understanding for a triumphant military general. At one point, while Grant and Lee were talking, Lee noticed the army officer who worked for Grant sitting at the desk and writing a fair copy of the surrender agreement. And Lee said, “Well, at least there’s a real American here.”

And he said that because the man who made the honest copy of the surrender was an American Indian named Eli Parker. And Parker looked up at Lee and said, “We’re all Americans.”

Considering the circumstances, what a nice thing to say. So one of the things I try to keep in my mind is just that: we are all Americans. We have been working on this for over 250 years. We can probably continue.

You write in your new book that, despite America’s shortcomings, “America deserves a sense of profound protection from us.” How do we do this?

We were born in this thing called America. Look around you, know its history, know who it is and what it has done. Get a sense of what America is.

It’s a big country. It has changed in many ways. But it’s still America. And I think my job is to receive it peacefully from the generation before me, and try to make it better, healthier and more beautiful before I pass it on to my children and say to them: ‘Make it better, let it shine . make this great experiment a better thing for everyone, and then ask your kids to do the same. That’s how I see our job as citizens.

Maria often asks the people she interviews what they do to stay above the noise. What are you doing?

That’s such a great question. All of us in the media world are highly connected. I was at an election party with friends, but then I went home around 11 p.m. to see the final ending to things and I realized at one point I was lying in my bed with two screens on pillows and one screen on the wall, which was the TV. You can’t go through life in bed surrounded by screens. You can’t go through life taking in so much data in your head – all the reels and the memes and the Tik Toks and the Instagram of it all.

In recent years I noticed that my thinking became distorted by too much information that was superficial and came through my eyes and ears too quickly. I began to long for rest and reading, which means longing for sitting in a chair and reading books. What you have when you read is the more grounded, serious and calm part of your brain that can really take in information and absorb it calmly.

I would recommend two types of books. One is great fiction that takes you out of the immediate pixels of life and into a story that has meaning and importance to your imagination.

The other is history. Here’s why: Everything you read about history tells you at the end: Oh my god, we got through that.

Peggy Noonan served as a special assistant to President Ronald Reagan from 1984 to 1986; in 1988, she was chief speechwriter for Vice President George Bush during his presidential campaign. Her articles and essays have appeared in Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Forbes and many other publications. She is currently a columnist and editor at the Wall Street Journal and a political contributor to Fox News.