Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0881336882, Paperback)

This comprehensive collection brings together the writings and speeches of statesmen, jurists, clergymen, reformers, and politically active academics who have provided Americans with a real, if unique, tradition of political theory. As inheritors of European intellectual traditions, American theorists have often borrowed from foreign ideas and creatively applied them to American circumstances. They have always attempted to persuade in order to support a new course of public action. The structure of this volume follows the perception that American political thought is a public, practically directed activity. Each public decision that fundamentally altered the course of American polity has created a different or revised political vision and established a political language. The material presented here focuses on the historical commitments believed to have defined contemporary America, from independence to industrial capitalism to American internationalism. While a great many individuals whose works appear in this book are famous for their writings or deeds, many are not. Each selection was chosen on the basis of its ability to exemplify a significant political perspective that adds to the overall understanding of American political thought, action, and politics in general.