The Idea of America
Reflections on the Birth of the United States
New York : Penguin Press, 2011.
Format: Book
Description: 385 pages ; 25 cm
A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the American Revolution explains why it remains the most significant event in our history. In a series of elegant and illuminating essays, Wood explores the ideological origins of the revolution--from ancient Rome to the European Enlightenment--and the founders' attempts to forge an American democracy.
Contents:
Rhetoric and reality in the American Revolution -- The legacy of Rome in the American Revolution -- Conspiracy and the paranoid style -- 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 -- 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.
Subjects:
United States. Constitution.
Democracy -- United States.
Republicanism -- United States.
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Influence.
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783.
United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1809.
United States. Constitution.
Democracy -- United States.
Republicanism -- United States.
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Influence.
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783.
United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1809.
ISBN:
9781594202902
Includes bibliographical references and index.