The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment

Richard, Carl J.

ISBN 10: 0674314255 / ISBN 13: 9780674314252

Edité par Naval Institute Press, 1994

A propos de cet article

Essential Study of Classical Influence on America's Founders. Explore the deep intellectual foundations of the American Republic with this acclaimed, landmark work published by Harvard University Press. Historian Carl J. Richard provides a comprehensive examination of how the Revolutionary generation?including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington?was profoundly shaped by classical antiquity. Drawing from private letters, political essays, and contemporary records, Richard demonstrates how classical Greek and Roman literature, philosophy, history, and political theory supplied the Founders with psychological conditioning, moral models, political terminology, and the very anti-monarchical symbolism used to forge the United States Constitution. Academic & Historical Value: An indispensable primary reference for scholars of the American Revolution, Founding Fathers, Classical Reception, Enlightenment philosophy, and early American political thought. Bibliographic Detail: First Edition / First Printing (1994). Hardcover format with original dust jacket. Published by Harvard University Press. Includes extensive scholarly notes, bibliography, and detailed subject index. ISBN-10: 0674314255 / ISBN-13: 9780674314252. Condition Report: Dust Jacket: Present with light surface shelf wear and minor edge rubbing. Colors and cover typography remain bright, crisp, and fully intact. Binding & Boards: Fine cloth hardcover boards are rigid, square, and tightly bound. Outer corners and edges are lightly rubbed from standard shelving. Interior & Text Block: Pages are exceptionally clean, bright, and completely unmarked?entirely free of student highlighting, pencil marginalia, or former owner signatures. Binding remains square and firm throughout. An authentic, clean-texted copy of a foundational Harvard University Press monograph.

N° de réf. du vendeur VV975

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment
• Éditeur: Naval Institute Press
• Date de parution: 1994
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0674314255
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780674314252
• Reliure: Hardcover
• Édition: 2ème Édition
• État de l'article: Very Good
• État de la jaquette: Very Good
• Poids: 1,5 livre

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

This text answers the question as to whether America's Greek and Roman heritage is merely allusive and illusory, or were its founders genuinely part of the stuff of antiquity? So far largely a matter of generalization and speculation, this text provides a comprehensive study of the influence of Greek and Roman authors on America's forefathers. Carl J. Richard begins by examining how 18th-century social institutions in general and the educational system in particular conditioned the founders to venerate the classics. He then explores the founders' various uses of classical symbolism, models, "antimodels", mixed government theory, pastoralism and philosophy, revealing in detail the formative influence exerted by the classics, both directly and through the mediation of Whig and American perspectives. In this analysis, we see how the classics not only supplied the principal basis for the US constitution but also contributed to the founders' conception of human nature, their understanding of virtue, and their sense of identity and purpose within a grand universal scheme. At the same time, we learn how the classics inspired obsessive fear of conspiracies against liberty, which poisoned relations between Federalists and Republicans. The shrewd ancients who moulded Western civilization still have much to teach us, Richard suggests. His account of the critical role they played in shaping our nation and our lives provides a valuable lesson in the transcendent power of the classics.