Every society has its problems. How many, however, ask "What would the founders have done?" when searching for solutions? Few if any share our fascination with those who brought their country into existence, publishing volumes year after year on key individuals and events.

Richard Brookhiser, author of biographies of Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris and the Adams family, was asked so often what the founders would have done about one contemporary problem or the other that he decided to write a book hypothesizing how the founders would have approached a long list of contemporary issues -- from capital punishment to terrorism.

Organizing his responses under broad categories that include religion, race, gender, education and economics, Brookhiser's mini essays are instructive, accessible and stimulating. Under each category Brookhiser touches on a handful of questions. In doing so he demonstrates that it is hard to come up with a contemporary issue that does not lend itself to a historical parallel.

Yet, I have two reservations with this book. First, not all questions are equal and certainly how the founders viewed liberty is of more consequence today than whether they would have drilled in ANWR or would the founders favor the Federal Reserve System.

My second reservation is more serious. Because the founders often disagreed -- sometimes to violent ends -- about the major issues of their day, how they might have responded to the issues of the 21st century depends on whom you are quoting. You almost have to be a revolutionary war scholar in order to judge whether Brookhiser has chosen representative opinions on each issue.

In fact, for the past 200 plus years polemicists have made it a habit of searching the writings of the founding fathers for quotes to bolster their positions on contemporary political issues. Many of the questions Brookhiser addresses in a couple of pages have been examined at book length by other writers

Jon Meacham's study of the relationship between government and religion in US history is a case in point. Tired of hearing people justify conflicting views on the church v. state debate on the basis of writings of one founder or another, Meacham decided to research more thoroughly how Jefferson, Madison et al perceived the proper balance between religion and politics.

Like Brookhiser, this is not Meacham's first book on the founders. The managing editor of Newsweek, Meacham is motivated out of concern should either those who argue that America was founded as a Christian nation and should be reconstituted as such today or those who argue that the first amendment requires removing all references to God or religion from the public sphere win the day.

After a thorough examination of the founders' writings and actions, he distinguishes between a state religion and a "public religion." The later is what Meacham calls the American Gospel. What is a public religion? Meacham argues that the founding fathers favored freedom from a state supported religion without meaning to exclude religion from public life or from driving the decisions of individuals who in public service.

He takes this view because he found repeated evidence that Washington, Adams and even the deist Jefferson sought guidance from their own religious beliefs at critical moments and that at critical moments they believed that America was under the protection of a higher force.

Those who want to establish the U.S. as a Christian nation will not find much help in Meacham. It is not solely the skepticism of men like Jefferson -- who was not convinced that Jesus was the son of God -- that led the founders to fear even declaring Christianity the country's religion. Rather they wanted to avoid the negative consequences of government's interfering with religious practice and liberty.

Nor will those who object to any mention of religion in public life find solace in Meacham's research. After all, the Declaration of Independence declares that the unalienable rights on which Britain had trampled were "endowed [upon mankind] by their Creator." References to a "Creator," "Nature's God" and similar metaphors abound in the writings of the founders. "We are not a world ungoverned by the laws and the power of a superior agent," wrote Thomas Jefferson.

In addition to dissecting the founders' views, Meacham helps us appreciate how often religion has played a role in our public life during crises from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Era. Lincoln, for example, adhered to the founders' view of protecting freedom of religion while allowing his personal belief in a higher being drive his decisions as president, and recent figures from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Ronald Reagan were able to parse the founders' distinction between championing religion and expecting the state to make it official.

That the majority of citizens then and now view themselves as Christians is not the point, Meacham argues. Grounds to fear the establishment of a religion should remain a concern given recent examples in Iran and Afghanistan. The fact that the founders did not mean to exclude religion from the lives of Americans provides for Meacham a solid middle ground.

Will this be the end of the argument? Hardly. Meacham will not convince those who would bend history to their own ends. Perhaps they will be forced to be less cavalier with their quotations. Perhaps not.

As for Brookhiser, it's safe to say that "What would the founders have done?" will remain a relevant question for a long time to come. We thank Brookhiser for showing us how frequently their views are worth knowing, although again he hasn't likely put to rest any of the debates over specific issues.