The Jefferson Rule: How the Founding Fathers Became Infallible and Our Politics Inflexible - Rilegato

Sehat, David

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1476779775 ISBN 13: 9781476779775

Casa editrice: Simon & Schuster, 2015

Riassunto

In The Jefferson Rule, historian David Sehat describes how everyone from liberals to conservatives, secessionists to unionists have sought out the Founding Fathers to defend their policies.

Beginning with the debate between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton over the future of the nation, and continuing through the Civil War, the New Deal, the Reagan Revolution, and Obama and the Tea Party, many pols have asked, “What would the Founders do?” instead of “What is the common good today?” Recently both the Right and the Left have used the Founders to sort through such issues as voting rights, campaign finance, free speech, gun control, taxes, and war and peace. They have used an outdated context to make sense of contemporary concerns.

This oversimplification obscures our real issues. From Jefferson to this very day we have looked to the eighteenth century to solve our problems, even though the Fathers themselves were a querulous and divided group who rarely agreed. Coming to terms with the past, Sehat suggests, would be the start of a productive debate. And in this account, which is by turns informative, colorful, and witty, he shows us why.

Su questo libro

Recensione

"[A] crisply written and incisive account of the uses and abuses of the Founders." (The Wall Street Journal)

"Sehat writes masterfully of American political history." (The Daily Beast)

“A careful, and fascinating, historical analysis of one aspect of American exceptionalism . . . well worth reading.”
(Sanford Levinson History Book Club)

"Sehat convincingly argues that the founders were fallible and not succinct in the ways they wanted the nation to be governed. . . . Highly recommended for political junkies, historians, and rhetoricians." (Library Journal (starred review))

“The author makes a strong case that forefather worship has had a pernicious effect on our politics throughout American history. . . . [the book]could not be timelier. . . . Sehat takes the reader through an engaging and insightful survey course in American history, pointing out where he believes ‘founding fanaticism’ crops up as the last refuge of politicians who can’t make a more rational or contemporary case for their beliefs.” (Christian Science Monitor)

"Sehat ably shows how the exploitation of the founders debases political debate and neglects policy evaluation—required reading for those desperate for sane, intelligent political arguments." (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))

“A sobering, informative study of concepts from America’s political origins too often viewed with rose-tinted glasses.” (Publishers Weekly)

"Please, dear politicians, read David Sehat’s The Jefferson Rule and stop pretending that everything you say, believe and propose is exactly what the Founders of our nation would say, believe and propose. The Founders themselves would be amazed and appalled by this. Sehat has written a splendid book—important, well-argued, and offered at the right moment. ‘Politicians create the Founders in their own image’, Sehat writes. They do, and they should stop." (E. J. Dionne Jr., author of "Our Divided Political Heart" and "Why Americans Hate Politics")

"In this beautifully written and provocative book, David Sehat gives the rhetoric about the Founders a history, spanning from Jefferson to Calhoun to FDR to Reagan to the Tea Party. Sehat convincingly argues that the world of the Founders has long been dead, and that Founders rhetoric dumbs down our political discourse." (Andrew Hartman, author of "A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars")

"The Founders’ framework is distorted and devalued, David Sehat shows, when we mistakenly treat Jefferson and his cohort as mirrors for whatever political outlooks we advance today. This book clarifies the difference between the use and the abuse of history." (David A. Hollinger, University of California, Berkeley; Past President, Organization of American Historians)

L'autore

David Sehat is Associate Professor of History at Georgia State University. His first book, The Myth of American Religious Freedom, won the Frederick Jackson Turner Award from the Organization of American Historians. Visit DavidSehat.net.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Simon & Schuster
• Data di pubblicazione: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1476779775
• ISBN 13: 9781476779775
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 308