Title: America's revolutionary mind : a moral history of the American Revolution and the Declaration that defined it /
Authors: Thompson, C. Bradley
Year: 2019
Subjects: United States.; Declaration of Independence (United States); Political science United States History; Ethics; Political science; United States History Moral and ethical aspects.; United States
Abstract: "The purpose of America's Revolutionary Mind 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 called the real American Revolution--that is, the moral revolution that occurred in the minds of the people in the fifteen years before what Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his 'Concord Hymn' (1837), famously called the 'shot heard round the world'."--Introduction, p. 4.
Contents: The Enlightenment and the Declaration of Independence -- Declaring the laws of nature -- Self-evident truths -- Equality -- Equality and slavery -- The nature of rights -- Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- The consent of the governed -- Consent and the just powers of government -- Revolution -- Rebels with a cause -- Has America lost its American mind?