998229 
Book The idea of America : reflections on the birth of the United States / Gordon S. Wood.
Publication year: 2012, c2011.
Language: English
Call Number E302.1 .W66 2012
Media class: Book
Publisher: New York : Penguin Books
ISBN: 9780143121244 0143121243
Notes:
"For historian Gordon S. Wood, the American Revolution is the most important event in our history. Since American identity is so fluid, we have had to continually return to our nation's founding to understand who we are. In a series of essays, the author explores the ideological origins of the Revolution - from ancient Rome to the European Enlightenment - and the founders' attempts to forge a democracy."--P. [iv] of cover.
Extent: 385 p. ; 22 cm.
Description:
Introduction -- Part I. The American Revolution. Rhetoric and reality in the American Revolution -- The legacy of Rome in the American Revolution -- Conspiracy and the paranoid style : causality and deceit in the eighteenth century -- Part II. The making of the Constitution and American democracy. Interests and disinterestedness in the making of the Constitution -- The origins of American constitutionalism -- The making of American democracy -- The radicalism of Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine considered -- Part III. The early republic. Monarchism and republicanism in early America -- Illusions of power in the awkward era of federalism -- The American enlightenment -- A history of rights in early America -- Conclusion : The American revolutionary tradition, or why America wants to spread democracy around the world.
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