New Book on American Founding

http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=158626&SntUrl=153054&SubjectId=974&Subject2Id=1348

The Founding of the American Republic

by H. Lee Cheek
by Sean R. Busick

This non partisan book brings often ignored people, ideas, and events to the forefront to offer new insights into the Founding of the American Republic.

• Imprint: Continuum
• Pub. date: 27 Dec 2012
• ISBN: 9781441182340

184 Pages, paperback World rights
Translation Rights Available $24.95

• Description

American Founding aims to provide a fair and thorough reappraisal of the Founding of the American Republic. Oftentimes, the Founders are, when not forgotten, made to fit some “ideological box” –liberals or conservatives, villains or saints. This book proves that such views need to be reconsidered, free from past ideologies and interpretations, to recover their teaching and foster a better understanding of contemporary politics. To do so, the authors let the Founders speak for themselves, by looking first at the Declaration of Independence, which reveals their vision of state and federal authority. Next, they examine how the Declaration was incorporated into the Articles of Confederation, in effect the first Constitution, and finally the Constitution of 1787, the most profound manifestation of the Founders’ view of the nature of American politics and society.

American Founding takes a broad view of the Founding while resisting an ideologically charged reading of history. This lively, historically accurate analysis will serve anyone interested in American political history and culture.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Plymouth Rock and Jamestown/ Chapter 2: The Founders and Faith/ Chapter 3: Founders and a Humane Economy/ Chapter 4: Founders on Government Power, Rightly Understood/ Chapter 5: The Declaration/ Chapter 6: Articles as First Constitution/ Chapter 7: Philadelphia Convention and the Constitution of 1787/ Chapter 8: The Founders, Part I: Convention/ Chapter 9: The Founders, Part II: Ratification/ Chapter 10: Founding Heroes/ Chapter 11: Slavery and the Founders/ Chapter 12: Legacies of the Founding

Author(s)

H. Lee Cheek, H. Lee Cheek is Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Political Science at Athens State University in Athens, USA. He has served as a congressional aide and as a political consultant. His books include Calhoun and Popular Rule (2001) and a critical edition of W. H. Mallock's The Limits of Pure Democracy (2007). Dr. Cheek is regarded as an authority on American political thought and the Founding generation.

Sean R. Busick, Sean R. Busick is an Associate Professor of History at Athens State University in Athens, USA. He is the author of A Sober Desire for History: William Gilmore Simms as Historian (2005), which was nominated for several prizes. Dr. Busick lectures to community groups and has published many articles and reviews in journals including the Journal of Southern History and Journal of American History.

The Return of Sentiments to Jurisprudence

This engaging and thoughtful book seeks to “consider the role of emotions in constitutional law, accepting that one cannot understand human behavior and law as a purely rational venture (p. 4).”  The author, András Sajó, a practicing judge (European Court of Human Rights) and academic (Central European University), offers a compelling legal and theoretical alternative to the positioning of reason and emotion as the extremes of jurisprudential thinking, while also explicating the pivotal function emotion assumes in constitutional design and law.  The book consists of seven chapters.  The first chapter is an introduction to the author’s argument on the behalf of a social constructivist concept of emotion, as well as the disadvantages of neglecting emotion more generally.  The second chapter outlines the importance of “enhanced emotions” as defined by the French Declaration of Rights.  The third and fourth chapters detail the role that emotions of fear (Constitutional Convention) and empathy (Abolitionist Movement) have assumed in modern politics.  The fifth and sixth chapters articulate how emotion is pivotal to defenses of freedom of speech and assembly.  The final, and arguably the most compelling chapter, argues for the importance of shame as a corrective emotion for past injustices, and the “recognition of responsibility” (p. 299).