Given some of my key subjects, I can’t help but be interested in the “occupy” movement that, at the moment, has a few hundred protesters [UPDATE: Now a lot more; I was there on Tuesday] more or less living in Zuccotti Park near the New York Stock Exchange in lower Manhattan, and is apparently starting [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Thomas Paine’
“Occupy Wall Street” and the History of Democratic Finance Protest
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 1776, Alexander Hamilton, American history, finance, Tea Party, Thomas Paine, U.S. Constitution, Whiskey Rebellion on September 29, 2011 | 17 Comments »
The Founders vs. American Democracy
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 1776, American history, conservatives, finance, George Washington, Glenn Beck, historiography, James Madison, John Adams, liberty, Tea Party, Thomas Paine, U.S. Constitution on May 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Here’s another comment that helps refine the discussion I’m interested in, this time posted on New Deal 2.0 in response to my final “Founding Finance” post there: I am curious where Jefferson (and for that matter Madison, Adams, Washington, and the other main framers) spoke hesitantly about democracy, the people, and the state legislatures. Conservatives [...]
Is Social Democracy French?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 1776, American history, evangelicals, finance, historiography, John Adams, liberals, Tea Party, Thomas Paine on May 11, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Wow. In the comment thread on Naked Capitalism, regarding my final New Deal 2.0 “Founding Finance” post, the commenter Peripheral Visionary offers the best-informed, most gracefully and concisely written summary I’ve ever seen of the classic interpretation of the American founding from which my work is precisely intended to dissent. This is so commonly believed, [...]
Thomas Paine and the Democratic Revolutionaries: Egypt 2011, America 1776
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 1776, American history, Christianity, Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence, democracy, Egypt, evangelicals, George Washington, historiography, John Adams, religion and the founders, Thomas Paine on February 16, 2011 | 5 Comments »
To the young democratic resisters in Egypt, some of whom I’ve heard saying in street interviews that they admire the American Revolution, I want to say something complicating. (No, I don’t literally think they’re taking time out of changing their country and the world to follow my blog — but hey, you never know!) This: [...]
John Adams the Yankee v. Samuel Adams the Puritan
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged American history, American independence, Christianity, Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence, evangelicals, historiography, John Adams, religion and the founders, Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine on September 27, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Over at American Creation, there are a couple of related posts from the always thought-provoking Jonathan Rowe on topics with great appeal for me. One is a link to an older post, on Rowe’s other site The One Best Way, about John Adams’s liberal ideas on religion; the other is on the illiberality of the [...]
Founding-Era Reading List: Leftist History, Part 2
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged American history, American independence, Declaration of Independence, Dirk Hoerder, E.P. Thompson, Elisha P. Douglass, evangelicals, Georges Rude, historiography, Joseph Ernst, left wing, Marc Egnal, Stieg Larsson, Tea Party, Thomas Paine on July 24, 2010 | 1 Comment »
(Part One is here. ) From a modest but notable spike in page views for my first entry in this category, I get the feeling these lists might have some actual value. I’ll interlink them as I go. (The “Tory History” list, coming soon, will be briefer and might be interesting too. Others may follow [...]
Founding-Era Reading List: Leftist History
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Alfred Young, American history, Eric Foner, evangelicals, Gary Nash, historiography, Jesse Lemisch, left wing, Marxism, Staughton Lynd, Stephen Rosswurm, Thomas Paine, Wythe Holt on July 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Here’s a list of some of the writers whose work has been invaluable to my understanding of the founding period. They’re on the left — not New York Times “media bias left” as defined by the right. These writers are actually informed by Marxism. [UPDATE: I promise an invaluable Tory-history reading list next.] [UPDATE: But [...]
Was May 15, 1776, Independence Day?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 1776, American history, American independence, Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence, historiography, John Adams, John Dickinson, Pennsylvania, Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine on June 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I’m going around saying that the story I tell in Declaration, despite its centrality, is little known. Yet one of the better-known dates, pivotal to the story, is Wednesday, May 15, 1776, when the Congress voted to add a preamble to a resolution it had passed on Friday, May 10. Because John Adams co-sponsored the [...]
