Inventing the People

Inventing the People PDF

Author: Edmund Sears Morgan

Publisher: New York : Norton

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 9780393025057

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Morgan argues, in effect, that representative democracy is a tool to bolster rule by the powerful few over the many; the majority are thus led to believe they control their own destiny. In this quietly subversive rereading of our history, American colonists perfected the fiction of popular rule by involving voters in extravagant electoral campaigns and by insisting that elected representatives derived their power from their constituents. Meanwhile, elitist colonial rulers who owned considerable property pulled strings to get their way. --from vendor description

King and Congress

King and Congress PDF

Author: Jerrilyn Greene Marston

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2014-07-14

Total Pages: 478

ISBN-13: 1400858755

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A persuasive reassessment of the nature of the institution that was in the forefront of the American revolutionary struggle with Great Britain--the Continental Congress. Providing a completely new perspective on the history of the First and Second Continental Congresses before independence, the author argues that American expectations regarding the proper functions of a legitimate central government were formed under the British monarchy, and that these functions were primarily executive. Originally published in 1987. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Challenge of the American Revolution

The Challenge of the American Revolution PDF

Author: Edmund S. Morgan

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 1978-02-17

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0393008762

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Essays written over the past thirty years assess the American Revolution's abstract and specifically contemporary importance and study factors and events seen as contributing directly to American independence and a national consciousness.

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin PDF

Author: Edmund Sears Morgan

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2003-01-01

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9780300101621

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Draws on Franklin's extensive writings to provide a portrait of the statesman, inventor, and Founding Father.

Ruling America

Ruling America PDF

Author: Steve Fraser

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2005-04-15

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9780674017474

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Ruling America offers a panoramic history of our country's ruling elites from the time of the American Revolution to the present. At its heart is the greatest of American paradoxes: How have tiny minorities of the rich and privileged consistently exercised so much power in a nation built on the notion of rule by the people? In a series of thought-provoking essays, leading scholars of American history examine every epoch in which ruling economic elites have shaped our national experience. They explore how elites came into existence, how they established their dominance over public affairs, and how their rule came to an end. The contributors analyze the elite coalition that led the Revolution and then examine the antebellum planters of the South and the merchant patricians of the North. Later chapters vividly portray the Gilded Age "robber barons," the great finance capitalists in the age of J. P. Morgan, and the foreign-policy "Establishment" of the post-World War II years. The book concludes with a dissection of the corporate-led counter-revolution against the New Deal characteristic of the Reagan and Bush era. Rarely in the last half-century has one book afforded such a comprehensive look at the ways elite wealth and power have influenced the American experiment with democracy. At a time when the distribution of wealth and power has never been more unequal, Ruling America is of urgent contemporary relevance.

The Gentle Puritan

The Gentle Puritan PDF

Author: Edmund S. Morgan

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2014-01-01

Total Pages: 513

ISBN-13: 0807839728

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Now available again, this important biography of the early New England intellectual leader was greeted as a "landmark in the history of the American mind" by Clifford K. Shipton when it appeared in 1962. Stiles lived at a critical time--the transition from the Reformation to the Enlightenment, which came suddenly in New England--and because of his position, his influence was great." Originally published in 1974. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

Roots of the Republic

Roots of the Republic PDF

Author: Stephen L. Schechter

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 1991-11-01

Total Pages: 473

ISBN-13: 1461642795

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Roots of the Republic shows how the Constitution was a product, not simply of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, but of a legal and philosophical tradition almost two centuries old. The editors have selected eighteen key documents in the development of that tradition and reproduced them with essays that explain what they mean, why they were written, and why they are important today. Each key document is accompanied by an interpretive essay written by a contemporary scholar. These essays focus on the importance of each frame of government and include commentaries on why they are meaningful today. Intended to help readers learn how to read and understand these documents, the book is also a handy reference and a strong introduction to the development of political thought and the debates surrounding the formation of the state governments and the federal union.

Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America

Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America PDF

Author: Edmund S. Morgan

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 1989-09-17

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0393347494

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"The best explanation that I have seen for our distinctive combination of faith, hope and naiveté concerning the governmental process." —Michael Kamman, Washington Post This book makes the provocative case here that America has remained politically stable because the Founding Fathers invented the idea of the American people and used it to impose a government on the new nation. His landmark analysis shows how the notion of popular sovereignty—the unexpected offspring of an older, equally fictional notion, the "divine right of kings"—has worked in our history and remains a political force today.

Sovereignty, International Law, and the French Revolution

Sovereignty, International Law, and the French Revolution PDF

Author: Edward James Kolla

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-10-12

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 1107179548

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This book argues that the introduction of popular sovereignty as the basis for government in France facilitated a dramatic transformation in international law in the eighteenth century.