Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Locke on the Social Compact: An Overview Chapter 3 Contribution of William Blackstone Chapter 4 Hume, Historical Inheritance, and the Problem of Founding Chapter 5 The Political Theory of the Declaration of Independence Chapter 6 Thomas Jefferson and the Social Compact Chapter 7 From Subjects to Citizens: The Social Compact Origins of American Citizenship Chapter 8 Alexander Hamilton and the Grand Strategy of the American Social Compact Chapter 9 John Adams's "Hobbism" Chapter 10 Benjamin Franklin and the Theory of Social Compact
Ronald J. Pestritto is Charles and Lucia Shipley Chair in the American Constitution at Hillsdale College and author of Founding the Criminal Law: Punishment and Political Thought in the Origins of America (2000). Thomas G. West is professor of politics at the University of Dallas and director and senior fellow of the Claremont Institute. His book Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class and Justice in the Origins of America (1997) won the 2000 Paolucci Book Award.
This study is thoroughly reseached, it engages critically with the
existing literature, and it is convincingly argued.
*Political Studies Review*
This book magnificently succeeds in restoring the politics of
natural right as an intelligible and persuasive alternative to the
politics of historicism.
*Claremont Review of Books*
Recommended.
*CHOICE*
This volume makes a massive contribution to our understanding of
the founding by emphasizing the social compact political theory
behind the founding. This allows the various and thoughtful authors
to be guided by those special qualities that inhere in the social
compact theory—the ideas of nature, equality, liberty, and
consent—and to interpret its meaning; this is the often forgotten,
yet necessary, condition that helps explain how our constitutional
democracy can work so well. I heartily recommend this volume to all
students of the founding.
*Peter W. Schramm, Executive Director of the John M. Ashbrook
Center for Public Affairs and a Professor of Political Science at
Ashland University*
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