Beck's backing bumps Skousen book to top

Move over, Oprah. Apparently, a book recommendation from Fox News Channel talk show host Glenn Beck carries a lot of punch, too.Beck, who will speak at the Stadium of Fire during America's Freedom

Festival at Provo on July 4, has told viewers and listeners of his TV

and radio shows to buy a book published nearly 30 years ago by late

Utah and Mormon author W. Cleon Skousen.

On Friday, after several days in the top 10, "The 5000 Year Leap: A

Miracle That Changed the World, Principles of Freedom 101" leaped to

No. 1 on Amazon.com's list of Bestsellers in Books.

"Everyone should read this book," the conservative talk show host

said as he passed out copies during a recent broadcast. On his radio

program Friday evening, Beck touted the book's climb to No. 1.

Skousen published "The 5000 Year Leap" in 1981, nearly 25 years

after he published "The Naked Communist," a national bestseller that

has sold more than 1 million copies.

"The 5000 Year Leap" is now in its seventh edition. In it, Skousen

lists 28 fundamental beliefs he declared were held by America's

Founding Fathers. He suggested those core beliefs made possible more

world progress in the first 200 years of the American experiment than

was made in the previous 5,000.

Beck added an introduction to the copies he handed out on his show.

"(Skousen) was years ahead of his time," Beck wrote. "And our founders

were thousands of years ahead of their time. My hope is that all

Americans young and old will spend time with this book to understand

why we are who we are. The words of our Founding Fathers have a way of

reaching across any political divide."