American Founders

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The Other Founders

Saul Cornell
The Other Founders Book PDF

Author : Saul Cornell
Publisher : UNC Press Books
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2012-12-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780807839218

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The Other Founders by Saul Cornell Pdf

Fear of centralized authority is deeply rooted in American history. The struggle over the U.S. Constitution in 1788 pitted the Federalists, supporters of a stronger central government, against the Anti-Federalists, the champions of a more localist vision of politics. But, argues Saul Cornell, while the Federalists may have won the battle over ratification, it is the ideas of the Anti-Federalists that continue to define the soul of American politics. While no Anti-Federalist party emerged after ratification, Anti-Federalism continued to help define the limits of legitimate dissent within the American constitutional tradition for decades. Anti-Federalist ideas also exerted an important influence on Jeffersonianism and Jacksonianism. Exploring the full range of Anti-Federalist thought, Cornell illustrates its continuing relevance in the politics of the early Republic. A new look at the Anti-Federalists is particularly timely given the recent revival of interest in this once neglected group, notes Cornell. Now widely reprinted, Anti-Federalist writings are increasingly quoted by legal scholars and cited in Supreme Court decisions--clear proof that their authors are now counted among the ranks of America's founders.

The Founders and the Classics

Carl J. Richard
The Founders and the Classics Book PDF

Author : Carl J. Richard
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 1995-08-11
Category : History
ISBN : 0674314263

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The Founders and the Classics by Carl J. Richard Pdf

The influence of Greek and Roman authors on our American forefathers finally becomes clear in this fascinating book—the first comprehensive study of the founders’ classical reading.

The Founders' Fortunes

Willard Sterne Randall
The Founders Fortunes Book PDF

Author : Willard Sterne Randall
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2022-02-08
Category : History
ISBN : 9781524745943

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The Founders' Fortunes by Willard Sterne Randall Pdf

An illuminating financial history of the Founding Fathers, revealing how their personal finances shaped the Constitution and the new nation In 1776, upon the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers concluded America’s most consequential document with a curious note, pledging “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.” Lives and honor did indeed hang in the balance, yet just what were their fortunes? How much did the Founders stand to gain or lose through independence? And what lingering consequences did their respective financial stakes have on liberty, justice, and the fate of the fledgling United States of America? In this landmark account, historian Willard Sterne Randall investigates the private financial affairs of the Founders, illuminating like never before how and why the Revolution came about. The Founders’ Fortunes uncovers how these leaders waged war, crafted a constitution, and forged a new nation influenced in part by their own financial interests. In an era where these very issues have become daily national questions, the result is a remarkable and insightful new understanding of our nation’s bedrock values.

Forced Founders

Woody Holton
Forced Founders Book PDF

Author : Woody Holton
Publisher : UNC Press Books
Page : 254 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2011-01-20
Category : History
ISBN : 9780807899861

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Forced Founders by Woody Holton Pdf

In this provocative reinterpretation of one of the best-known events in American history, Woody Holton shows that when Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and other elite Virginians joined their peers from other colonies in declaring independence from Britain, they acted partly in response to grassroots rebellions against their own rule. The Virginia gentry's efforts to shape London's imperial policy were thwarted by British merchants and by a coalition of Indian nations. In 1774, elite Virginians suspended trade with Britain in order to pressure Parliament and, at the same time, to save restive Virginia debtors from a terrible recession. The boycott and the growing imperial conflict led to rebellions by enslaved Virginians, Indians, and tobacco farmers. By the spring of 1776 the gentry believed the only way to regain control of the common people was to take Virginia out of the British Empire. Forced Founders uses the new social history to shed light on a classic political question: why did the owners of vast plantations, viewed by many of their contemporaries as aristocrats, start a revolution? As Holton's fast-paced narrative unfolds, the old story of patriot versus loyalist becomes decidedly more complex.

African Founders

David Hackett Fischer
African Founders Book PDF

Author : David Hackett Fischer
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 960 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2022-05-31
Category : History
ISBN : 9781982145095

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African Founders by David Hackett Fischer Pdf

"A ... synthesis of African and African-American history that shows how slavery differed in different regions of the country, and how the Africans and their descendants influenced the culture, commerce, and laws of the early United States"--

American Dialogue

Joseph J. Ellis
American Dialogue Book PDF

Author : Joseph J. Ellis
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2019-11-26
Category : History
ISBN : 9780804172479

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American Dialogue by Joseph J. Ellis Pdf

The award-winning author of Founding Brothers and The Quartet now gives us a deeply insightful examination of the relevance of the views of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Adams to some of the most divisive issues in America today. The story of history is a ceaseless conversation between past and present, and in American Dialogue Joseph J. Ellis focuses the conversation on the often-asked question "What would the Founding Fathers think?" He examines four of our most seminal historical figures through the prism of particular topics, using the perspective of the present to shed light on their views and, in turn, to make clear how their now centuries-old ideas illuminate the disturbing impasse of today's political conflicts. He discusses Jefferson and the issue of racism, Adams and the specter of economic inequality, Washington and American imperialism, Madison and the doctrine of original intent. Through these juxtapositions—and in his hallmark dramatic and compelling narrative voice—Ellis illuminates the obstacles and pitfalls paralyzing contemporary discussions of these fundamentally important issues.

The Political Theory of the American Founding

Thomas G. West
The Political Theory of the American Founding Book PDF

Author : Thomas G. West
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 431 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2017-04-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9781107140486

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The Political Theory of the American Founding by Thomas G. West Pdf

This book provides a complete overview of the Founders' natural rights theory and its policy implications.

Fears of a Setting Sun

Dennis C. Rasmussen
Fears of a Setting Sun Book PDF

Author : Dennis C. Rasmussen
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2022-09-27
Category : History
ISBN : 9780691241418

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Fears of a Setting Sun by Dennis C. Rasmussen Pdf

The surprising story of how George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson came to despair for the future of the nation they had created Americans seldom deify their Founding Fathers any longer, but they do still tend to venerate the Constitution and the republican government that the founders created. Strikingly, the founders themselves were far less confident in what they had wrought, particularly by the end of their lives. In fact, most of them—including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson—came to deem America’s constitutional experiment an utter failure that was unlikely to last beyond their own generation. Fears of a Setting Sun is the first book to tell the fascinating and too-little-known story of the founders’ disillusionment. As Dennis Rasmussen shows, the founders’ pessimism had a variety of sources: Washington lost his faith in America’s political system above all because of the rise of partisanship, Hamilton because he felt that the federal government was too weak, Adams because he believed that the people lacked civic virtue, and Jefferson because of sectional divisions laid bare by the spread of slavery. The one major founder who retained his faith in America’s constitutional order to the end was James Madison, and the book also explores why he remained relatively optimistic when so many of his compatriots did not. As much as Americans today may worry about their country’s future, Rasmussen reveals, the founders faced even graver problems and harbored even deeper misgivings. A vividly written account of a chapter of American history that has received too little attention, Fears of a Setting Sun will change the way that you look at the American founding, the Constitution, and indeed the United States itself.

The American Founders

Lewis E. Lehrman
The American Founders Book PDF

Author : Lewis E. Lehrman
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 200 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2013-11-05
Category : Founders
ISBN : 0984017852

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The American Founders by Lewis E. Lehrman Pdf

The Founders knew that their citizens and their government colleagues were imperfect. The Founders themselves were imperfect. In an imperfect world of imperfect people it could not be otherwise. Indeed, they could be petty. With the hindsight of the historian, their decisions may appear questionable. The Founders could be pessimistic about democracy. "Public affairs go on pretty much as usual: perpetual chicanery and rather more personal abuse than there used to be," wrote John Adams to Thomas Jefferson only weeks before they died. "Our American Chivalry is the worst in the world. It has no Laws, no bounds, no definitions; it seems to be all a Caprice." However, the American Founders were as able a political leadership as any in recorded history. Whatever their faults and fears, they acted, in peace and war, as if America's future were bright. Before leaving for his inauguration in 1789, President-elect Washington wrote: "My endeavours shall be unremittingly exerted (even at the hazard of former fame or present popularity) to extricate my country from the embarrassments in which it is entangled, through want of credit; and to establish, a general system of policy, which, if pursued will insure permanent felicity to the Commonwealth. I think I see a path, as clear and as direct as a ray of light, which leads to the attainment of that object. Nothing but harmony, honesty, industry, and frugality are necessary to make us a great and happy people."

A Republic of Men

Mark E. Kann
A Republic of Men Book PDF

Author : Mark E. Kann
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 1998-04-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780814748473

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A Republic of Men by Mark E. Kann Pdf

What role did manhood play in early American Politics? In A Republic of Men, Mark E. Kann argues that the American founders aspired to create a "republic of men" but feared that "disorderly men" threatened its birth, health, and longevity. Kann demonstrates how hegemonic norms of manhood–exemplified by "the Family Man," for instance--were deployed as a means of stigmatizing unworthy men, rewarding responsible men with citizenship, and empowering exceptional men with positions of leadership and authority, while excluding women from public life. Kann suggests that the founders committed themselves in theory to the democratic proposition that all men were created free and equal and could not be governed without their own consent, but that they in no way believed that "all men" could be trusted with equal liberty, equal citizenship, or equal authority. The founders developed a "grammar of manhood" to address some difficult questions about public order. Were America's disorderly men qualified for citizenship? Were they likely to recognize manly leaders, consent to their authority, and defer to their wisdom? A Republic of Men compellingly analyzes the ways in which the founders used a rhetoric of manhood to stabilize American politics.

First Principles

Thomas E. Ricks
First Principles Book PDF

Author : Thomas E. Ricks
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2020-11-10
Category : History
ISBN : 9780062997470

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First Principles by Thomas E. Ricks Pdf

New York Times Bestseller Editors' Choice —New York Times Book Review "Ricks knocks it out of the park with this jewel of a book. On every page I learned something new. Read it every night if you want to restore your faith in our country." —James Mattis, General, U.S. Marines (ret.) & 26th Secretary of Defense The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author offers a revelatory new book about the founding fathers, examining their educations and, in particular, their devotion to the ancient Greek and Roman classics—and how that influence would shape their ideals and the new American nation. On the morning after the 2016 presidential election, Thomas Ricks awoke with a few questions on his mind: What kind of nation did we now have? Is it what was designed or intended by the nation’s founders? Trying to get as close to the source as he could, Ricks decided to go back and read the philosophy and literature that shaped the founders’ thinking, and the letters they wrote to each other debating these crucial works—among them the Iliad, Plutarch’s Lives, and the works of Xenophon, Epicurus, Aristotle, Cato, and Cicero. For though much attention has been paid the influence of English political philosophers, like John Locke, closer to their own era, the founders were far more immersed in the literature of the ancient world. The first four American presidents came to their classical knowledge differently. Washington absorbed it mainly from the elite culture of his day; Adams from the laws and rhetoric of Rome; Jefferson immersed himself in classical philosophy, especially Epicureanism; and Madison, both a groundbreaking researcher and a deft politician, spent years studying the ancient world like a political scientist. Each of their experiences, and distinctive learning, played an essential role in the formation of the United States. In examining how and what they studied, looking at them in the unusual light of the classical world, Ricks is able to draw arresting and fresh portraits of men we thought we knew. First Principles follows these four members of the Revolutionary generation from their youths to their adult lives, as they grappled with questions of independence, and forming and keeping a new nation. In doing so, Ricks interprets not only the effect of the ancient world on each man, and how that shaped our constitution and government, but offers startling new insights into these legendary leaders.

The Religious Beliefs of America's Founders

Gregg L. Frazer
The Religious Beliefs of America s Founders Book PDF

Author : Gregg L. Frazer
Publisher : University Press of Kansas
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2014-08-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9780700620210

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The Religious Beliefs of America's Founders by Gregg L. Frazer Pdf

Were America's Founders Christians or deists? Conservatives and secularists have taken each position respectively, mustering evidence to insist just how tall the wall separating church and state should be. Now Gregg Frazer puts their arguments to rest in the first comprehensive analysis of the Founders' beliefs as they themselves expressed them-showing that today's political right and left are both wrong. Going beyond church attendance or public pronouncements made for political ends, Frazer scrutinizes the Founders' candid declarations regarding religion found in their private writings. Distilling decades of research, he contends that these men were neither Christian nor deist but rather adherents of a system he labels "theistic rationalism," a hybrid belief system that combined elements of natural religion, Protestantism, and reason-with reason the decisive element. Frazer explains how this theological middle ground developed, what its core beliefs were, and how they were reflected in the thought of eight Founders: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington. He argues convincingly that Congregationalist Adams is the clearest example of theistic rationalism; that presumed deists Jefferson and Franklin are less secular than supposed; and that even the famously taciturn Washington adheres to this theology. He also shows that the Founders held genuinely religious beliefs that aligned with morality, republican government, natural rights, science, and progress. Frazer's careful explication helps readers better understand the case for revolutionary recruitment, the religious references in the Declaration of Independence, and the religious elements-and lack thereof-in the Constitution. He also reveals how influential clergymen, backing their theology of theistic rationalism with reinterpreted Scripture, preached and published liberal democratic theory to justify rebellion. Deftly blending history, religion, and political thought, Frazer succeeds in showing that the American experiment was neither a wholly secular venture nor an attempt to create a Christian nation founded on biblical principles. By showcasing the actual approach taken by these key Founders, he suggests a viable solution to the twenty-first-century standoff over the relationship between church and state-and challenges partisans on both sides to articulate their visions for America on their own merits without holding the Founders hostage to positions they never held.

Beyond the Founders

Jeffrey L. Pasley,Andrew W. Robertson,David Waldstreicher
Beyond the Founders Book PDF

Author : Jeffrey L. Pasley,Andrew W. Robertson,David Waldstreicher
Publisher : Univ of North Carolina Press
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2009-11-04
Category : History
ISBN : 080789883X

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Beyond the Founders by Jeffrey L. Pasley,Andrew W. Robertson,David Waldstreicher Pdf

In pursuit of a more sophisticated and inclusive American history, the contributors to Beyond the Founders propose new directions for the study of the political history of the republic before the Civil War. In ways formal and informal, symbolic and tactile, this political world encompassed blacks, women, entrepreneurs, and Native Americans, as well as the Adamses, Jeffersons, and Jacksons, all struggling in their own ways to shape the new nation and express their ideas of American democracy. Taking inspiration from the new cultural and social histories, these political historians show that the early history of the United States was not just the product of a few "founding fathers," but was also marked by widespread and passionate popular involvement; print media more politically potent than that of later eras; and political conflicts and influences that crossed lines of race, gender, and class. Contributors: John L. Brooke, The Ohio State University Andrew R. L. Cayton, Miami University (Ohio) Saul Cornell, The Ohio State University Seth Cotlar, Willamette University Reeve Huston, Duke University Nancy Isenberg, University of Tulsa Richard R. John, University of Illinois at Chicago Albrecht Koschnik, Florida State University Rich Newman, Rochester Institute of Technology Jeffrey L. Pasley, University of Missouri, Columbia Andrew W. Robertson, City University of New York William G. Shade, Lehigh University David Waldstreicher, Temple University Rosemarie Zagarri, George Mason University

America's Black Founders

Nancy I. Sanders
America s Black Founders Book PDF

Author : Nancy I. Sanders
Publisher : Chicago Review Press
Page : 161 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 9781556528118

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America's Black Founders by Nancy I. Sanders Pdf

Celebrates the lesser-known lives and contributions of early African-American men and women, in a volume that features such complementary activities as recipes for colonial foods and advice for petitioning the government. Original.

The Founders on the Founders

John P. Kaminski
The Founders on the Founders Book PDF

Author : John P. Kaminski
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : History
ISBN : 0813927579

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The Founders on the Founders by John P. Kaminski Pdf

"Through a series of revealing quotations, historian John P. Kaminski profiles thirty of the era's best-known individuals, including Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, John Hancock, Thomas Paine, and Patrick Henry ("all tongue without either head or heart," according to Thomas Jefferson), as well as the early presidents and their first ladies. The discourse is unfailingly respectful, and yet this is no mutual admiration society. The subjects are not afraid to be sharp about one another, but this only makes their words of praise more convincing and poignant." "Beginning with an introductory essay that provides an overview of the relationships between the founders, the book then presents each individual, providing a biographical sketch and a chronologically arranged series of quotations, clarifying not only each person's place within the independence movement but the contours of their character. The authors strike us with their candor, their insight, and their eloquence as they make their subjects come alive for us. As this book reveals, greatness is not only a matter of responding to the times; the people themselves were remarkable."--BOOK JACKET.