Life giving resources. Faithfully delivered.
FREE delivery on orders over £10
Serving over 2 million Christians in the UK
with Bibles, Books and Church Supplies
Our Buy-Now-Pay-Later accounts used
by over 4,000 UK Churches & Schools
Excellent 4.8 out of 5

Trustpilot

You now have 0 of this item in your basket

The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition

[Paperback]

by Willmoore Kendall, George W. Carey

Authors
Willmoore Kendall +1
Book Format
Paperback
Publisher
Catholic University of America Press
Published
January 1995

Read full description

Click to expand

Today's Price

£23.03

Free UK Delivery

Available - Usually dispatched within 6 days

Buying for a school or church? Upgrade to a FREE Eden Advance Account

Enter the product quantity

The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition

Today's Price £23.03

Frequently Bought Together

The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition

by Willmoore Kendall +1

Paperback

Grumpy Old Men: Understanding the Minor Prophets

by Todd Pylant

Paperback

Add both to basket for £28.13

Product Description

When it was first published twenty-five years ago, this classic work of political theory gained notoriety because neither its approach nor its interpretations readily fit into any of the major schools of thought dealing with the American political tradition. More significantly, its arguments challenged core tenets of what had become received wisdom concerning the roots of our political beliefs and institutions. Willmoore Kendall and George W. Carey argue that a new, largely contrived political tradition has gained currency in many legal, academic, and political circles. This new tradition, set forth by Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address, holds that our fundamental political ideas are derived from the Bill of Rights and the "all men are created equal" clause of the Declaration of Independence. Proponents of this view not only champion individual rights but also believe that the achievement of a broadly defined equality represents a binding but as yet unfulfilled promise made by the American people in the Declaration. In the present work, Kendall and Carey instead maintain that one must look to the founding era and its key documents in order to understand our indigenous political tradition. In so doing, one sees that the right of the people to govern themselves, rather than the concept of individual rights, is at the heart of the American political tradition. Using the analytical approach developed by Eric Voegelin, the authors examine the documents that are vital to an understanding of our political origins: the Mayflower Compact, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, the Massachusetts Body of Liberties, the Virginia Bill of Rights, the Constitution itself, and the Federalist Papers. At the same time, they consider questions highly relevant to the subsequent course of American political development. This thought-provoking book contributes important arguments to the fundamental debate over the place of equality in our political self-understanding. It will continue to be of immense interest to all serious students of American political thought.