Foundations of American Political Thought
By Alin Fumurescu and Anna Marisa Schön
JMC faculty partner Alin Fumurescu and fellow Anna Marisa Schön are publishing a book on the unique influences on American political thought. It’s due for release this month:
American political thought was shaped by a unique combination of theoretical influences: republicanism, liberalism, and covenant theology. This reader shows how these influences came together. Organized chronologically from the Puritans’ arrival in the New World to the Civil War, each chapter includes carefully selected primary sources and substantial commentary to explain the historical context and significance of the excerpts. A coherent interpretative framework is offered by focusing the analysis on the different assumptions about the “people” – the republican understanding of the people as a corporate whole and the liberal understanding of the people as a multitude of individuals – that were intertwined during the founding. The book features, for the first time, two chapters on non- American authors, who capture the main tenets of republicanism and liberalism and were widely quoted in the era, as well as excerpts from lesser-known sources, including Puritan covenants, the first state constitutions, and Native American speeches.
Pre-order now from Cambridge University Press or Amazon >>
Alin Fumurescu is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science at University of Houston. His research interests include the history of ideas, political and self-representation, and American political thought. He was the recipient of the American Political Science Association Leo Strauss Award for the best doctoral dissertation in political philosophy for 2013. His book, Compromise – A Political and Philosophical History (Cambridge University Press, 2013) was nominated by CHOICE among the top 25 outstanding academic titles published in 2013. Among others, Fumurescu’s work has been published in Political Research Quarterly, European Legacy, European Journal of Political Theory, American Political Thought, and Perspectives on Politics.
Professor Fumurescu is a JMC faculty partner.
Learn more about Alin Fumurescu >>
Anna Marisa Schön is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of Houston, Texas.
Dr. Schön is a JMC fellow.
Learn more about Anna Marisa Schön >>
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