Modern history

The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States

The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States

The American Revolution is the most important event in our history, bar none. Since American identity is so fluid and not based on any universally shared heritage, we have had to continually return to our nation's founding to understand who we are.

Introduction

PART I - THE American Revolution

Chapter 1. RHETORIC and REALITY in the AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Chapter 2. The LEGACY of ROME in the AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Chapter 3. CONSPIRACY and the PARANOID STYLE: CAUSALITY and DECEIT in the EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

PART II - THE Making OF THE Constitution AND American Democracy

Chapter 4. INTERESTS and DISINTERESTEDNESS in the MAKING of the CONSTITUTION

Chapter 5. The ORIGINS of AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONALISM

Chapter 6. The MAKING of AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Chapter 7. The RADICALISM of THOMAS JEFFERSON and THOMAS PAINE CONSIDERED

PART III - THE Early Republic

Chapter 8. MONARCHISM and REPUBLICANISM in EARLY AMERICA

Chapter 9. ILLUSIONS of POWER in the AWKWARD ERA of FEDERALISM

Chapter 10. The AMERICAN ENLIGHTENMENT

Chapter 11. A HISTORY of RIGHTS in EARLY AMERICA

CONCLUSION: The AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY TRADITION, or WHY AMERICA WANTS to SPREAD DEMOCRACY AROUND the WORLD

NOTES

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