American Democracy American Founders, Presidents, and Enlightened Philosophers [Paperback]

It would be hard to fault the selections of Grotius, Hobbes, Locke, Montequieu, and Rosseau. The editors' comments and linkages to the historical context are well done.... The American Project section is sound and the primary source selections judiciously chosen.... In sum, DePlato and Hodge offer a sourcebook that instructors may adapt to a variety of intellectual perspectives... [T]hey provide ample opportunity for instructors and students to engage in a dialogue over the intellectual influences on the American Founding and its application by subsequent statesmen.This book is a comprehensive collection of historic political thought. From the political philosophies of classical and renaissance thinkers to the speeches of American Presidents, it introduces the American Founders theories of democracy by connecting and analyzing the words of their philosophical forerunners and Presidential successors.Following the Renaissance, democracy was still considered a dangerous form of government. Democracy was often regarded as a fools folly and a madmans paradise. The well-wishers of the Republican Government would have fanciful debates in intellectual circles, but paternal monarchies dominated the western and eastern world. Yet in a heroic and herculean way, a group of Anglo-Saxons, who grew up under proud monarchies, rose to dethrone the English Crown and to establish the greatest democracy in history. What theories inspired these men? Why didnt they just simply create an American King? Or better yet, make themselves kings? The answers to these questions lie in the eloquent and exact writings of great American Founders, Presidents, and Enlightened Philosophers such as: James Madison, George Clinton, Edmund Randolph, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Patrick Henry, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Rush, John Hancock, John Jay, Cicero, Aristotle, John Locke, Hugo Grotius, John Winthrop, Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, Ronallc›