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

Sehat, David

ISBN 10: 1476779775 / ISBN 13: 9781476779775

Published by Simon & Schuster, U.S.A., 2015

About this Item

The question has long intruded on American politics. Beginning with the debate between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton over the new nation's future, and continuing through the Civil War, the New Deal, the Reagan Revolution, and Barack Obama and the Tea Party, politicians and activists have sought the Founding Fathers' advice. The pattern started with the Founders themselves. Jefferson urged the Founders to support an agrarian ideal of liberty and states' rights. Washington and Hamilton replied that the Fathers stand for strong national government. John C. Calhoun used their words to support nullification and secession. Abraham Lincoln responded that the Founders stood for nationhood and an insoluble union. FDR resurrected the Fathers as he attacked Wall Street's "Economic Royalists." Martin Luther King Jr. quoted them to fight for civil rights. Ronald Reagan invoked the Founders to defend small government. And President Obama has quoted them to fight gridlock and lend support to compromise. Liberals, conservatives, secessionists, unionists, civil rights leaders, white supremacists, radicals, and libertarians -- all ask the same question of the Founders and suggest contradictory answers. But the founding generation didn't have the same views, even then. They were a querulous and divided group. This makes it odder still when politicians and strategists quote them as though they were in agreement. The oversimplification obscures many crucial issues. In this lively, learned, and witty history of our national habit, The Jefferson Rule offers a fascinating read and an important reminder that each generation must think for itself. Simon & Schuster, Hardcover, 1st Edition, 2015. This is a BRAND NEW book. There is a red "closeout/remainder" mark on the bottom page edges.

Seller Inventory # 000025

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Jefferson Rule: How the Founding Fathers Became Infallible and Our Politics Inflexible
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster, U.S.A.
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1476779775
• ISBN 13: 9781476779775
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

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.