America’s Revolutionary Mind: A Moral History of the American Revolution and the Declaration That Defined It by C. Bradley Thompson
This is my favorite book on the history of the founding of America. It gives the context of where the founders were coming from morally and what writings and experiences influenced them. Some of the influences came from the writings of Francis Bacon, Issac Newton, and John Locke, among others. They were in uncharted waters, starting a country that, for the first time in human history, recognized individual rights, and that your life belongs to you rather than to the government. The founding of America was called an experiment, and still is.
From the author
The purpose of this book is twofold: first, to elucidate the logic, principles, and significance of the Declaration of Independence as the embodiment of the American mind; and, second, to shed light on what John Adams once called the “real American Revolution”; that is, the moral revolution that occurred in the minds of the people in the fifteen years before 1776. The Declaration is used here as an ideological road map by which to chart the intellectual and moral terrain traveled by American Revolutionaries as they searched for new moral principles to deal with the changed political circumstances of the 1760s and early 1770s. This volume identifies and analyzes the modes of reasoning, the patterns of thought, and the new moral and political principles that served American Revolutionaries first in their intellectual battle with Great Britain before 1776 and then in their attempt to create new Revolutionary societies after 1776.
The book reconstructs what amounts to a near-unified system of thought―what Thomas Jefferson called an “American mind” or what I call “America’s Revolutionary mind.” This American mind was, I argue, united in its fealty to a common philosophy that was expressed in the Declaration and launched with the words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident.”
From a 5-star review on Amazon
C. Bradley Thompson’s book was a surprising and wonderful revelation.
His thesis is that from roughly 1760 to 1776 the American colonists distilled a new, radical and even revolutionary political philosophy; that this philosophy was concisely and eloquently framed and set forth in the Declaration of Independence; that the Founders knew that they were inventing a new philosophy, they were self-aware and deliberate; and that this new political philosophy became the foundation of a completely new society, culture and government unlike any seen before in human history.
The Declaration was not just an eloquent document, written to justify the Revolution and stir people’s spirits; it was the final summation of a tremendous amount of thinking and writing that had gone before by many, many colonists. It is not a surprise that he attributes the essential premises of this revolution in thinking to John Locke. What is surprising, and what Thompson documents prodigiously, is how many colonists were completely and profoundly aware of where they were getting their ideas, and how thoroughly they had thought about them, and how clear they were about the interconnections of those ideas. If ever there were an exemplary illustration of the fact that ideas move the world, this is it.
I agree, America was considered an experiment because of its innovation in individual rights, and it is still the biggest precursor of individual rights around the world. Its uniqueness makes it totally inspiring and beautiful.
Thank you, Denise. America is a wonderful country and we have made much progress in recognizing individual rights, including the right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. Thousands risk their lives every day to come here from countries that do not recognize that your life is your own.