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A nation of agents : the American path to a modern self and society / James E. Block.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Block, James E.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Protestantism--Political aspects.
- History.
- Protestantism.
- Social aspects.
- Agent (Philosophy).
- United States--Civilization--1783-1865.
- United States.
- Civilization.
- National characteristics, American.
- Agent (Philosophy)--History.
- United States--Intellectual life--1783-1865.
- Intellectual life.
- United States--Politics and government--1783-1865.
- Politics and government.
- Political culture--United States--History.
- Political culture.
- Protestantism--Social aspects--United States--History.
- Protestantism--Political aspects--United States--History.
- Liberalism--United States--History.
- Liberalism.
- Physical Description:
- xi, 658 pages ; 25 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002.
- Summary:
- In this sweeping reinterpretation of American political culture, Block offers a new perspective on the formation of the modern American self and society. "A Nation of Agents" is a new reading of what the "first new nation" did and did not achieve. It can enable readers to move beyond long-standing national myths and grasp both the American achievement and its legacy for modernity.
- Contents:
- 1 The American Narrative in Crisis 1
- I The English Origins of the American Self and Society
- 2 The Early Puritan Insurgents and the Origins of Agency 39
- 3 The Protestant Revolutionaries and the Emerging Society of Agents 69
- 4 Thomas Hobbes and the Founding of the Liberal Politics of Agency 111
- 5 John Locke and the Mythic Society of Free Agents 152
- II The Ascendancy of Agency and the First New Nation
- 6 The Great Awakening and the Emergent Culture of Agency 183
- 7 The Revolutionary Triumph of Agency 233
- III The Dilemma of Nationhood
- 8 The Liberal Idyll amidst Republican Realities 299
- 9 From Liberation to Reversal in a World without Bounds 332
- IV The Creation of an Agency Civilization
- 10 National Revival as the Crucible of Agency Character 369
- 11 From Sectarian Discord to Civil Religion 424
- 12 The Protestant Agent in Liberal Economics 459
- 13 John Dewey and the Modern Synthesis 493
- Conclusion: The Recovery of Agency 537.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 553-633) and index.
- ISBN:
- 0674008839
- OCLC:
- 49312439
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