Title The myth of American individualism : the Protestant origins of American political thought / Barry Alan Shain

Published Princeton ; Chichester : Princeton University Press, 1996

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Description 1 online resource (xix, 394 pages) Series Princeton paperbacks Princeton paperbacks. 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 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 Analysis Baptists Bill of Rights Boston Massacre British Constitution Calvinism Delaware Constitution European bankers First Amendment German totalitarianism Jeffersonians Kendall, Willmoore Kloppenberg, James Madison, James Revolutionary War Roman republicanism abolitionists ambition anarchism anthropocentrism civil liberty communalism despotism direct democracy disasters economic enterprises elites emergent individualism familial independence federalism gossip happiness historiography inalienable rights intermediate institutions liberalism liberty localism majoritarianism minorities national government nationalism natural liberty old Revolutionaries pamphlet literature personal liberty police powers political liberty prescriptive liberties publishing industry rationalism reciprocal dependence Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages .329-377) Notes Print version record Subject Common good -- History -- 18th century Communities -- History -- 18th century Individualism -- United States -- History -- 18th century Political science -- United States -- History -- 18th century HISTORY -- United States -- Revolutionary Period (1775-1800) Common good Communities Individualism Political science Individualismus Protestantismus Politisches Denken United States USA Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9780691224992 0691224994

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