Alexis de Tocqueville, one of the greatest commentators on the
American political tradition, viewed it through the lens of two
related ideas: liberty and equality. These ideas, so eloquently
framed by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, have
remained inextricably and uniquely conjoined in American political
thought: equality isunderstood as the equal possession of natural
rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. By
considering American reflections on these core ideas over time-in
relation to constitutional principles, religion, and race-this
volume provides an especially insightful perspective for
understanding our political tradition. The book is at once a
summary of American history told through ideas and an inquiry into
the ideas of liberty and equality through the lens of American
history. To a remarkable extent, American politics has always been
thoughtful and American thought has always been political. In these
pages, we see how some of our greatest minds have grappled with the
issues of liberty and equality: Tocqueville and Jefferson,
Alexander Hamilton as Publius in The Federalist, James Madison,
George Washington, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass,
Abraham Lincoln debating Stephen Douglas, and Franklin D.
Roosevelt. In essays responding to these primary sources, some of
today's finest scholars take up topics critical to the American
experiment in liberal democracy-political inequality, federalism,
the separation of powers, the relationship between religion and
politics, the history of slavery and the legacy of racism. Together
these essays and sources help to clarify the character, content,
and significance of American political thought taken as awhole.
They illuminate and continue the conversation that has animated and
distinguished the American political tradition from the
beginning-and, hopefully, better equip readers to contribute to
that conversation.
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