Fears of a Setting Sun (eBook)

The Disillusionment of America's Founders

Dennis C. Rasmussen (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021
288 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-21106-0 (ISBN)

Infos

The surprising story of how George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson came to despair for the future of the nation they had createdAmericans seldom deify their Founding Fathers any longer, but they do still tend to venerate the Constitution and the republican government that the founders created. Strikingly, the founders themselves were far less confident in what they had wrought, particularly by the end of their lives. In fact, most of them-including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson-came to deem America's constitutional experiment an utter failure that was unlikely to last beyond their own generation. Fears of a Setting Sun is the first book to tell the fascinating and too-little-known story of the founders' disillusionment.As Dennis Rasmussen shows, the founders' pessimism had a variety of sources: Washington lost his faith in America's political system above all because of the rise of partisanship, Hamilton because he felt that the federal government was too weak, Adams because he believed that the people lacked civic virtue, and Jefferson because of sectional divisions laid bare by the spread of slavery. The one major founder who retained his faith in America's constitutional order to the end was James Madison, and the book also explores why he remained relatively optimistic when so many of his compatriots did not. As much as Americans today may worry about their country's future, Rasmussen reveals, the founders faced even graver problems and harbored even deeper misgivings.A vividly written account of a chapter of American history that has received too little attention, Fears of a Setting Sun will change the way that you look at the American founding, the Constitution, and indeed the United States itself.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 2.3.2021
• Zusatzinfo: 1 b/w illus.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
• Schlagworte: Aaron Burr • abolitionism • Acts • Admiration • Advocacy group • Alien • Alien and Sedition Acts • ALL THINGS • American Affairs • American capitalism • americans • Ancient Greece • Anti-Federalism • anti Federalists • Anxiety • Apologetics • aristocracy • Articles of Confederation • assassination • attempt • autocracy • Benjamin Franklin • Bill of rights • Bonus Bill of 1817 • bribery • Burr (novel) • Capitalism • Career • Censorship • central authority • Charles Cotesworth Pinckney • circumstantial evidence • city-state • civic engagement • civic virtue • civil liberties • Compromise of 1790 • Congress • Constitution • Constitutional Convention • constitutional crisis • contempt • continental congress • Corruption • counterattack • Crisis • Critical theory • Criticism • critique • culture war • Cynicism (contemporary) • Death • decentralization • Declaration of Independence • deference • Deliberation • demagogue • Democracy • democratic • despotism • Disenchantment • distrust • Economic Inequality • Edward Coles • Elbridge Gerry • Electoral College • Electoral College (United States) • Elite • Emancipation • Embargo Act of 1807 • Era of Good Feelings • Essay • Essex Junto • Executive • Expense • Failure • Fake News • Federal government of the United States • Federalist • Federalist No. 10 • federalist party • Federalists • Foray • foreign policy • Forms of Government • forrest mcdonald • Francisco de Miranda • Fraud • freedom of religion • French Revolution • Frustration • Gerrymandering • God • Good government • Gouverneur Morris • Governance • Government • guerrilla warfare • henry knox • hereditary monarchy • history of American political crises • hostility • House • humiliation • Hush Money • hypocrisy • impasse • Impeachment • imperialism • Impressment • Inauguration • inference • inferiority complex • infidelity • injunction • insignificance • Institution • Insubordination • Insurgency • involuntary servitude • isolationism • jacobin • James McHenry • Jay Treaty • John Adams • John Marshall • Joseph Priestley • Josiah Quincy III • Judicial Independence • Judiciary • lafayette • Legislation • Legislature • liberal democracy • Louisiana Territory • Mass Incarceration • Member of Congress • Missouri • mixed government • Monarch • monarchism • Monarchy • Montesquieu • month • Nathaniel Gorham • national security • New Religious Movement • nullification • Nullification Crisis • Opposition Party • optimism • Orthodoxy • Ostracism • Overreaction • Oxford University Press • Pamphlet • Parties • Patriotism • peacetime • Persecution • Personality clash • pessimism • political constitution • Political culture • Political Party • Political Philosophy • Political suicide • Political violence • Politician • Politics • politics of the united states • Populism • Potter Stewart • Precedent • Prejudice • presidency • Presidency of George Washington • President • Princeton University Press • Proclamation of Neutrality • Public Policy • Public speaking • Quasi-War • Racism • ratification • Rebellion • Redistricting commission • Regime • Religion • Representative Democracy • Republic • Republican • Republicanism • Republican Party (United States) • Republicans • Resignation • Revolution • Revolutionary generation • rhetoric • Robert Yates (politician) • ron chernow • running mate • Secularism • Sedition • Self-Interest • Selfishness • Senate • Separation of Powers • separatism • sex scandal • Shays' Rebellion • Sinecure • Slavery • Sons of liberty • Sovereignty • Speculation • State Government • Subsidy • Subversion • Suggestion • Superiority (short story) • Supreme Court • tariff • Tax • Term limit • the American experiment • The American Voter • The Crown • The Other Hand • The Public Interest • The Spirit of the Laws • Thomas Paine • To this Day • Trade barrier • Treaty • Tyranny of The Majority • Tyrant • Uncertainty • United States Bill of Rights • United States constitution • United States presidential election, 1800 • University of Virginia Press • urbanization • Venality • Veto • Virginia Plan • Virginia Ratifying Convention • voter suppression • Voter turnout • war • War of 1812 • Washington’s Farewell Address • Wealth • Writing • Wrong direction
• ISBN-10: 0-691-21106-X / 069121106X
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-21106-0 / 9780691211060