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Both reason and religion have been acknowledged by scholars to have
had a profound impact on the foundation and formation of the
American regime. But the significance, pervasiveness, and depth of
that impact have also been disputed. While many have approached the
American founding period with an interest in the influence of
Enlightenment reason or Biblical religion, they have often assumed
such influences to be exclusive, irreconcilable, or contradictory.
Few scholarly works have sought to study the mutual influence of
reason and religion as intertwined strands shaping the American
historical and political experience at its founding. The purpose of
the chapters in this volume, authored by a distinguished group of
scholars in political science, intellectual history, literature,
and philosophy, is to examine how this mutual influence was made
manifest in the American Founding-especially in the writings,
speeches, and thought of critical figures (Thomas Paine, Benjamin
Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison,
Alexander Hamilton, Charles Carroll), and in later works by key
interpreters of the American Founding (Alexis de Tocqueville and
Abraham Lincoln). Taken as a whole, then, this volume does not
attempt to explain away the potential opposition between religion
and reason in the American mind of the late eighteenth- and early
nineteenth- centuries, but instead argues that there is a uniquely
American perspective and political thought that emerges from this
tension. The chapters gathered here, individually and collectively,
seek to illuminate the animating affect of this tension on the
political rhetoric, thought, and history of the early American
period. By taking seriously and exploring the mutual influence of
these two themes in creative tension, rather than seeing them as
diametrically opposed or as mutually exclusive, this volume thus
reveals how the pervasiveness and resonance of Biblical narratives
and religion supported and infused Enlightened political discourse
and action at the Founding, thereby articulating the
complementarity of reason and religion during this critical period.
Both reason and religion have been acknowledged by scholars to have
had a profound impact on the foundation and formation of the
American regime. But the significance, pervasiveness, and depth of
that impact have also been disputed. While many have approached the
American founding period with an interest in the influence of
Enlightenment reason or Biblical religion, they have often assumed
such influences to be exclusive, irreconcilable, or contradictory.
Few scholarly works have sought to study the mutual influence of
reason and religion as intertwined strands shaping the American
historical and political experience at its founding. The purpose of
the chapters in this volume, authored by a distinguished group of
scholars in political science, intellectual history, literature,
and philosophy, is to examine how this mutual influence was made
manifest in the American Founding especially in the writings,
speeches, and thought of critical figures (Thomas Paine, Benjamin
Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison,
Alexander Hamilton, Charles Carroll), and in later works by key
interpreters of the American Founding (Alexis de Tocqueville and
Abraham Lincoln). Taken as a whole, then, this volume does not
attempt to explain away the potential opposition between religion
and reason in the American mind of the late eighteenth- and early
nineteenth- centuries, but instead argues that there is a uniquely
American perspective and political thought that emerges from this
tension. The chapters gathered here, individually and collectively,
seek to illuminate the animating affect of this tension on the
political rhetoric, thought, and history of the early American
period. By taking seriously and exploring the mutual influence of
these two themes in creative tension, rather than seeing them as
diametrically opposed or as mutually exclusive, this volume thus
reveals how the pervasiveness and resonance of Biblical narratives
and religion supported and infused Enlightened political discourse
and action at the Founding, thereby articulating the
complementarity of reason and religion during this critical period.
Enlightening Revolutions_a collection of outstanding essays by
highly prominent scholars_examines the different ways in which the
relation between politics and philosophy has been understood and
enacted over the ages. The volume sheds light on key theoretical
and historical issues: the intriguing position and historical
influence of medieval Jewish and Islamic rationalism; the advent of
modernity in the thought of Machiavelli and Hobbes; the prospects
for greatness in modernity as seen by Adam Smith, Jonathan Swift,
the Founding Fathers, and Alexis de Tocqueville; and the prospects
for philosophic excellence in modern times as seen by, among
others, Montesquieu and Leo Strauss, as well as through the eyes of
Plato and the Bible. The volume is dedicated to Ralph Lerner,
Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago. It honors Lerner's
splendid teaching and scholarship over half a century, and
testifies in some measure to his enlightening, enlivening,
gracefully witty, and humanizing activity and example.
Enlightening Revolutions-a collection of outstanding essays by
highly prominent scholars-examines the different ways in which the
relation between politics and philosophy has been understood and
enacted over the ages. The volume sheds light on key theoretical
and historical issues: the intriguing position and historical
influence of medieval Jewish and Islamic rationalism; the advent of
modernity in the thought of Machiavelli and Hobbes; the prospects
for greatness in modernity as seen by Adam Smith, Jonathan Swift,
the Founding Fathers, and Alexis de Tocqueville; and the prospects
for philosophic excellence in modern times as seen by, among
others, Montesquieu and Leo Strauss, as well as through the eyes of
Plato and the Bible. The volume is dedicated to Ralph Lerner,
Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago. It honors Lerner's
splendid teaching and scholarship over half a century, and
testifies in some measure to his enlightening, enlivening,
gracefully witty, and humanizing activity and example.
Concentration camp survivor, former Marxist-Leninist and Lithuanian
patriot, Aleksandras Shtromas devoted his life to understanding
totalitarianism and political change. He was a remarkably prescient
thinker and is probably best known for his prediction of the fall
of the Soviet Union, forecast at a time when the mighty empire
seemed almost invincible. This posthumous collection of writings,
edited by Robert Faulkner and Daniel J. Mahoney, addresses some of
the topics that preoccupied Shtromas throughout his life, including
totalitarian regimes, postcommunist transitions, the fates of the
Baltic states, and the nature of political revolutions. Readers of
Totalitarianism and the Prospects for World Order: Closing the Door
on the Twentieth Century will encounter not just a learned and
impressive scholar, but also a great man who confronted monstrous
evils in his lifetime.
Concentration camp survivor, former Marxist-Leninist and Lithuanian
patriot, Aleksandras Shtromas devoted his life to understanding
totalitarianism and political change. He was a remarkably prescient
thinker and is probably best known for his prediction of the fall
of the Soviet Union, forecast at a time when the mighty empire
seemed almost invincible. This posthumous collection of writings,
edited by Robert Faulkner and Daniel J. Mahoney, addresses some of
the topics that preoccupied Shtromas throughout his life, including
totalitarian regimes, postcommunist transitions, the fates of the
Baltic states, and the nature of political revolutions. Readers of
Totalitarianism and the Prospects for World Order: Closing the Door
on the Twentieth Century will encounter not just a learned and
impressive scholar, but also a great man who confronted monstrous
evils in his lifetime.
Ever since Douglass Adair convincingly demonstrated that a love of
fame was central to the American founding, political scientists and
historians have started to view the founders and their acts in a
new light. In The Noblest Minds, ten distinguished scholars examine
this passion for fame and honor and demonstrate for the first time
its significance in the development of American democracy. The
first two-thirds of the book is devoted to essays on individual
founders, as the contributors consider the role of fame in the
lives and political characters of Washington, Franklin, Madison,
Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams, and Marshall. The remaining chapters
analyze the founders' theoretical accomplishment in reviving
political science, and explore the problem of honor in the modern
world. Political scientists and American historians alike will find
this book to be valuable and illuminating. What made the founding
generation of American statesmen so outstanding? To answer this
question, The Noblest Minds brings together a distinguished group
of historians and political scientists to evaluate a neglected but
compelling theory advanced nearly four decades ago by Douglass
Adair. Adair argued that it was the 'love of fame' that moved many
of the leading lights of the founding generation. Adair's thesis is
the starting point for a series of searching essays on the role of
fame in the lives of Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison,
Marshall, and Washington. These profiles also provide wide-ranging
historical and philosophical reflections on the question of fame.
What emerges from these essays is a more complex picture of the
founding generation than that presented by Adair. While
acknowledging the role of the love of fame, The Noblest Minds
argues for the influence of other concerns such as honor, virtue,
and the cause of liberty. This more complex picture of the founding
generation provides a unique and rewarding vantage point from which
to consider the question of 'character' in politics, which looms so
large in contemporary political debate. It illuminates the
differences between true fame and mere celebrity in such a way as
to point to considerations that transcend both. Political
scientists and American historians alike will find this book to be
valuable and illuminating.
Within eight years of the death of George Washington in 1799, the
first major biography of "the father of his country" was written by
John Marshall and published in five volumes. Marshall, who later
became Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, was
induced to the task by the first President's nephew, Bushrod
Washington. Marshall's own principal biographer, Albert J.
Beveridge, has described "The Life of George Washington" as "to
this day the fullest and most trustworthy treatment of that period
from the conservative point of view." In fact, so significant is
the biography that Marshall later executed a one-volume abridgment,
first published in 1838 and used widely for generations in American
schools and colleges. The twentieth and final version of the
abridgement, published in 1849, is the text reproduced in the new
Liberty Fund edition of what Charles A. Beard has praised as a
"great" and "masterly" biography. The editors' foreword and notes,
together with maps of major battle campaigns not included in the
original edition, make this edition especially attractive for
classroom use. The Appendices include Washington's Speech to the
Officers of the Army (15 March 1783), Address to Congress on
Resigning Commission (23 December 1783), Letter to Congress
Transmitting Proposed Constitution (17 September 1787), First
Inaugural Address (30 April 1789), and Farewell Address (19
September 1796).Robert Faulkner is a Professor of Political Science
at Boston College.Paul Carrese is a Professor of Political Science
at the United States Air Force Academy.
Within eight years of the death of George Washington in 1799, the
first major biography of 'the father of his country' was written by
John Marshall and published in five volumes. This, the twentieth
and final version of the abridgement, published in 1849, is the
text reproduced in the new Liberty Fund edition of what Charles A
Beard has praised as a 'great' and 'masterly' biography. The
editors' foreword and notes, together with maps of major battle
campaigns not included in the original edition, make this edition
especially attractive for students.
A searching defense of great political leadership The Case for
Greatness is a spirited look at political ambition, good and bad,
with particular attention to honorable ambition. Robert Faulkner
contends that too many modern accounts of leadership slight such
things as determination to excel, good judgment, justice, and a
sense of honor-the very qualities that distinguish the truly great.
And here he offers an attempt to recover "a reasonable
understanding of excellence," that which distinguishes a Franklin
D. Roosevelt and a Lincoln from lesser leaders. Faulkner finds the
most telling diagnoses in antiquity and examines closely
Aristotle's great-souled man, two accounts of the spectacular and
dubious Athenian politician Alcibiades, and the life of the
imperial conqueror Cyrus the Great. There results a complex and
compelling picture of greatness and its problems. Faulkner dissects
military and imperial ambition, the art of leadership, and, in the
later example of George Washington, ambition in the service of
popular self-government. He also addresses modern indictments of
even the best forms of political greatness, whether in the critical
thinking of Hobbes, the idealism of Kant, the relativism and
brutalism of Nietzsche, or the egalitarianism of Rawls and Arendt.
He shows how modern philosophy came to doubt and indeed disdain
even the best forms of ambition. This book is a nuanced defense of
admirable ambition and the honor-seeking life, as well as an
irresistible invitation to apply these terms to our own times and
leaders.
A sparsely populated island in the North Atlantic recently made
worldwide headlines in the Global Financial Crisis and for volcanic
eruptions that caused unprecedented chaos to international air
travel. Large contemporary audiences have formed very different
images of Iceland through the vocal music and music videos of BjArk
and Sigur RA(3)s. Just below the Arctic Circle, Icelandic men
engage in more everyday vocal practices, where singing, literally
for one's Self, is an everyday life skill set against a backdrop of
unique natural, historical, economic and social phenomena. Their
sagas of song and singing are the subject of this book. The
original Icelandic Sagas - among the most important collections of
medieval European literature - are valued for richly detailed
portrayals of individual lives. This book's principle protagonists
and collaborators share a heritage where Sagas remain central to
national and local identity. While the oral traditions associated
with them were largely overwhelmed by European romanticism just
over a hundred years ago, ironically, this new vocal music became a
key technology for national renewal. Written by an 'immigrant'
musician who lived in a remote Icelandic community for over twenty
years, this volume focuses upon individual and collective stories
about singing as personal and social work. Drawing upon everyday
ethnographic and sociological studies of music, and emerging
discourse about musical identity, the study uses anthropological,
historical and musicological evidence in thinking about songs,
singing and Self, and the genderedness of this particular singing
practice.
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