The myth of American individualism : the protestant origins of American political thought / Barry Alan Shain.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shain, Barry Alan, 1950- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Common good.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xix, 394 pages)

Edition:

1. paperback print.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1996]

Summary:

Sharpening the debate over the values that formed America's founding political philosophy, Barry Alan Shain challenges us to reconsider what early Americans meant when they used such basic political concepts as the public good, liberty, and slavery. We have too readily assumed, he argues, that eighteenth-century Americans understood these and other terms in an individualistic manner. However, by exploring how these core elements of their political thought were employed in Revolutionary-era sermons, public documents, newspaper editorials, and political pamphlets, Shain reveals a very different understanding--one based on a reformed Protestant communalism. In this context, individual liberty was the freedom to order one's life in accord with the demanding ethical standards found in Scripture and confirmed by reason. This was in keeping with Americans' widespread acceptance of original sin and the related assumption that a well-lived life was only possible in a tightly knit, intrusive community made up of families, congregations, and local government bodies. Shain concludes that Revolutionary-era Americans defended a Protestant communal vision of human flourishing that stands in stark opposition to contemporary liberal individualism. This overlooked component of the American political inheritance, he further suggests, demands examination because it alters the historical ground upon which contemporary political alternatives often seek legitimation, and it facilitates our understanding of much of American history and of the foundational language still used in authoritative political documents.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE: STANDING: THE PUBLIC GOOD, THE INDIVIDUAL, AND THE COMMUNITY

CHAPTER ONE Three Discourses in Defense of the Public Good

CHAPTER TWO A Sketch of 18th-Century American Communalism

CHAPTER THREE Localism and the Myth of American Individualism

CHAPTER FOUR Three Leading Views of the Individual, Plus One

PART TWO: THE MEANING OF LIBERTY IN THE REVOLUTIONARY ERA

CHAPTER FIVE A Delusive Similarity: (Ordered) Liberty and Freedom

CHAPTER SIX Spiritual Liberty: The Quintessential Liberty

CHAPTER SEVEN Corporate Liberty: Political and Civil

CHAPTER EIGHT The Concept of Slavery: Liberty's Antithesis

AFTERWORD

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691224992

0691224994

9780691033822

069103382X

OCLC:

1237368088