The Myth of American Individualism

The Myth of American Individualism
Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Total Pages : 415
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780691224992
ISBN-13 : 0691224994
Rating : 4/5 (994 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Myth of American Individualism by : Barry Alan Shain

Download or read book The Myth of American Individualism written by Barry Alan Shain and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.


The Myth of American Individualism Related Books

The Myth of American Individualism
Language: en
Pages: 415
Authors: Barry Alan Shain
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2021-02-09 - Publisher: Princeton University Press

GET EBOOK

Sharpening the debate over the values that formed America's founding political philosophy, Barry Alan Shain challenges us to reconsider what early Americans mea
The Roots of American Individualism
Language: en
Pages: 432
Authors: Alex Zakaras
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2024-08-20 - Publisher: Princeton University Press

GET EBOOK

A panoramic history of American individualism from its nineteenth-century origins to today’s bitterly divided politics Individualism is a defining feature of
The Cult of Individualism
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Aaron Barlow
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-08-27 - Publisher: Praeger

GET EBOOK

American individualism: It is the reason for American success, but it also tears the nation apart. Why do Americans have so much trouble seeing eye to eye today
From Power to Prejudice
Language: en
Pages: 272
Authors: Leah N. Gordon
Categories: Education
Type: BOOK - Published: 2015-05-20 - Publisher: University of Chicago Press

GET EBOOK

Gordon provides an intellectual history of the concept of racial prejudice in postwar America. In particular, she asks, what accounts for the dominance of theor
American Individualism
Language: en
Pages: 90
Authors: Herbert Hoover
Categories: Individualism
Type: BOOK - Published: 1922 - Publisher: Garden City, Doubleday

GET EBOOK

In this book, Hoover expounds and vigorously defends what has come to be called American exceptionalism: the set of beliefs and values that still makes America