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America's Revolutionary Mind
- A Moral History of the American Revolution and the Declaration That Defined It
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
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Publisher's summary
The purpose of this book is twofold: first, to elucidate the logic, principles, and significance of the Declaration of Independence as the embodiment of the American mind; and, second, to shed light on what John Adams once called the "real American Revolution"; that is, the moral revolution that occurred in the minds of the people in the 15 years before 1776. The Declaration is used here as an ideological road map by which to chart the intellectual and moral terrain traveled by American Revolutionaries as they searched for new moral principles to deal with the changed political circumstances of the 1760s and early 1770s. This volume identifies and analyzes the modes of reasoning, the patterns of thought, and the new moral and political principles that served American Revolutionaries first in their intellectual battle with Great Britain before 1776 and then in their attempt to create new Revolutionary societies after 1776.
The book reconstructs what amounts to a near-unified system of thought - what Thomas Jefferson called an "American mind" or what author C. Bradley Thompson calls "America's Revolutionary mind." This American mind was, Thompson argues, united in its fealty to a common philosophy that was expressed in the Declaration and launched with the words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident."
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Deconstructing the New Left
- By Wayne on 01-17-20
By: Roger Scruton
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The Civil War as a Theological Crisis
- By: Mark A. Noll
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
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Although Christian believers agreed with one another that the Bible was authoritative and that it should be interpreted through commonsense principles, there was rampant disagreement about what Scripture taught about slavery. Furthermore, most Americans continued to believe that God ruled over the affairs of people and nations, but they were radically divided in their interpretations of what God was doing in and through the war.
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Nice addition to History of U.S. Religious Culture
- By Lisa Larges on 06-04-12
By: Mark A. Noll
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Democracy in America
- By: Alexis de Tocqueville
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 34 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat and civil servant, made a nine-month journey through the eastern United States. The result was Democracy in America, a monumental study of the strengths and weaknesses of the nation’s evolving politics. His insightful work has become one of the most influential political texts ever written on America.
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Most Listenable, if not the Best Translation
- By Michael Allen on 10-04-13
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Democracy in America (Excerpts)
- By: Alexis de Tocqueville
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Highlights
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Alexis de Tocqueville's renowned analysis of American democracy still has relevance today. In 1831 de Tocqueville was sent to America by the French government to study the U.S. penal system, but his real aim was to observe a democratic republic firsthand to see if such an entity could function with dignity and humanity. His travels, which took him to the cities of the Northeast, to the frontier and the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi and through the South, showed him a great deal about the United States. In 1834, he wrote Democracy in America, in which he examines the advantages and pitfalls of democracy, the conditions and conflicts among the races, and the movements that grip the country.
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Democracy in America
- By Michael on 02-18-10
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Our Declaration
- A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality
- By: Danielle Allen
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
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In just 1,337 words, the Declaration of Independence changed the world, but curiously it is now rarely read from start to finish, much less understood. Unsettled by this, Danielle Allen read the text quietly with students and discovered its animating power. "Bringing the analytical skills of a philosopher, the voice of a gifted memoirist, and the spirit of a soulful humanist to the task, Allen manages to find new meaning in Thomas Jefferson' s understanding of equality," says Joseph J. Ellis about Our Declaration.
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Second Most Interesting Book I've Ever Read
- By Christopher on 01-27-15
By: Danielle Allen
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Theory and History
- An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution (LvMI)
- By: Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Like F.A. Hayek, Ludwig von Mises moved beyond economics in his later years to address questions regarding the foundation of all social science. But unlike Hayek's attempts, Mises' writings on these matters have received less attention than they deserve. Theory and History, writes Rothbard in his introduction, "remains by far the most neglected masterwork of Mises". Here Mises defends his all-important idea of methodological dualism: one approach to the hard sciences and another for the social sciences.
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Without This Book, You Are Uneducated
- By Michael D. Rubin on 10-03-18
By: Ludwig von Mises, and others
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The Demon in Democracy
- Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies
- By: Ryszard Legutko, John O'Sullivan, Teresa Adelson
- Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
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Ryszard Legutko lived and suffered under communism for decades - and he fought with the Polish anti-communist movement to abolish it. Having lived for two decades under a liberal democracy, however, he has discovered that these two political systems have a lot more in common than one might think. They both stem from the same historical roots in early modernity, and accept similar presuppositions about history, society, religion, politics, culture, and human nature.
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Important book on political philosophy
- By Wayne on 08-02-19
By: Ryszard Legutko, and others
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The Nation That Never Was
- Reconstructing America's Story
- By: Kermit Roosevelt
- Narrated by: Kermit Roosevelt III
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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We face a dilemma these days. We want to be honest about our history and the racism and oppression that Americans have both inflicted and endured. But we want to be proud of our country, too. In The Nation That Never Was, Roosevelt shows how we can do both those things by realizing we’re not the country we thought we were. Reconstruction, Roosevelt argues, was not a fulfillment of the ideals of the Founding but rather a repudiation: we modern Americans are not the heirs of the Founders but of the people who overthrew and destroyed that political order.
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A Necessary Book.
- By Jason Baumbach on 01-30-24
By: Kermit Roosevelt
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A sweeping narrative of the wartime experience, A People's History of the American Revolution is the first book to view the Revolution through the eyes of common folk. Their stories have long been overlooked in the mythic telling of America's founding but are crucial to a comprehensive understanding of the fight for independence. Now, the experience of farmers, laborers, rank-and-file soldiers, women, Native Americans, and African Americans - found in diaries, letters, memoirs, and other revelatory primary sources - create a gritty account of rebellion....
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The Rise of American Democracy
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In this magisterial work, Sean Wilentz traces a historical arc from the earliest days of the republic to the opening shots of the Civil War. One of our finest writers of history, Wilentz brings to life the era after the American Revolution, when the idea of democracy remained contentious, and Jeffersonians and Federalists clashed over the role of ordinary citizens in government of, by, and for the people. The triumph of Andrew Jackson soon defined this role on the national level, while city democrats, Anti-Masons, fugitive slaves, and a host of others hewed their own local definitions.
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If you need to sleep...
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What listeners say about America's Revolutionary Mind
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Phillip T Buse
- 10-21-21
A detailed line by line analysis!
This is a book, that takes the American Revolution and its root motivations in morality, very seriously. It includes a line by line analysis of the Declaration of Independence, that cross references the philosophical influencers of the founders, the communication between citizens and statesmen of the day, and successfully integrates the empirical facts with the ideas contained within the document itself.
Near the end, there is a story told through the clash of cultures that the philosophy of the enlightenment made unavoidable by declaring right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness as universal absolute moral truth. From the attacks on the DoI by slave owners in the south, to the 20th century move toward moral relativism in rejection of human right to life.
Comprehensive, and grounded in reality. Very important book. I believe the author mentioned undergoing the revolution scholars tedious traditional pilgrimage, through all preserved literature and locale relevant to the event.
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- dave
- 12-10-20
essential
Absolutely an amazing book a must read to understand the declaration of Independence and the roots ofAmerican history.
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-24-21
Excellent study of Revolutionary Thinking
This book is very heady and well-paced for so much to soak in. If you enjoy a deep study of the thinking behind the American Revolution, this book is for you.
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-02-21
Educational, Interesting, and Well Sourced
This book was full of information, quotes, philosophy; It should be mandatory reading in schools.
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- Bob P.
- 08-11-21
Thorough Discussion of the Colonial American Mind
The first several chapters of this book reminded me of Chicago DJ Larry Lujack who said there could be no rock'n'roll without repetition. Some of the quotations, especially those from John Locke, are pretty repetitious at the start. But Mr. Thompson does a detailed job of explaining the philosophy and mindset that prevailed in colonial America during the decade and a half that preceded the Revolutionary War. American intellectuals like Jefferson and Adams were concerned with nature, nature's God and man's rights, and their thoughts permeated down to the common men of their time. The Declaration of Independence''s key passage, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…" is thoroughly explicated. At the end, the author brings his inquiry up to date, explaining that the universal, timeless truths of the Declaration were countered first by advocates of slavery and later by the collectivists, subjectivists and socialists who considered groups/societies superior to the individual. Unfortunately, today's Americans give little, if any, thought to natural law, the rights of man or the proper function of government.
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- Jack G.
- 10-24-20
Still no answer as to why!
Good read. Background of the philosophy behind the Constitution excellent. However no good answer to why slaves not included in the philosophy....or freed.
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- David R.
- 05-06-21
The Shot Heard Around the World Still Reverberating
The author’s research, and discussion of it, is well worth the listen. His conclusion of the book, where he revisits slavery, is outstanding. I’ll listen again after some time to think about it.
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-19-22
Summary of beliefs of our Founding Father's.
Without going into all the writings of pre-revolutionary thinkers, this writer gives a concise description of what the founders thoughts on the governance of free men. A most excellent book for one's edification.
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