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Where Patriots Rally When Democracy Is Threatened: The Origin & History of the Political Principles Contained in the Declaration of Independence - Hardcover
Synopsis
American democracy is under authoritarian attack. Where Patriots Rally narrates the origin and history of our founding principles so that you may be better able and more inclined to defend them from that attack. As Thomas Paine, the pamphleteer of the American Revolution, put it, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” To be worthy of our democracy we must be willing to fight for its survival.
The object of Where Patriots Rally’s inquiry is a set of ideas — the principles written into the Declaration of Independence — the self-evident truths of universal equality based on inalienable natural rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness under governance by consent of the governed.
The essay’s premise is that a basic grasp of humankind’s quest to extract these principles from more than twenty centuries of hard experience can inspire a renewed dedication to them.
The quest begins with ancient Greek philosophers whose writings influenced Western political development from the fall of Rome through the Middle Ages and up to the present day. In a crisp, page-turning narrative we meet the leading shapers of Western political thought whose lives and works are most often conveyed in an academic context. A critical survey of St. Augustine's suffocating doctrine of humankind's wretched fate is followed by the natural law teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas and the crucial stand Martin Luther took for the primacy of the individual's conscience.
Author Ben McNitt tracts such concepts as the pursuit of happiness, inalienable rights, and consent of the governed from their origins to their inclusion in the Declaration. He also describes the fate of many of those who struggled to define freedom amidst their contemporary backdrop of church dogma and the despotism of kings and princes. War, imprisonment, torture, exile and banishment are the crucibles from which the legacy of liberal democracy emerged.
We get the flavor of the Radical Enlightenment through the life and works of Spinoza and of the more influential Moderate Enlightenment in coverage of John Locke and Sydney Algernon. The influence of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus on crucial wording in the Declaration of Independence is documented by examination of Thomas Jefferson's own words about his personal religious beliefs.
The text is richly illustrated with full page color images of the main characters.
Where Patriots Rally is a tour de force in an essay format accessible to all, a breath-taking journey through the West’s political development culminating in drafting America’s political creed in the Declaration of Independence.
The essay closes with a stirring call to those who have inherited this great legacy to rally to its defense against threatening authoritarianism.
McNitt's previous book is A House Divided Slavery and American Politics from the Constitution to the Civil War,
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Where Patriots Rally When Democracy Is Threatened: The Origin & History of the Political Principles Contained in the Declaration of Independence
Seller: California Books, Miami, FL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Condition: New. Seller Inventory # I-9781962155113