"It has long been a grave question": The Republican War Dilemma in American History,1776-1861.

详细信息   

• 作者：Marriott ; Alexander.
• 学历：Ph.D.
• 年：2013
• 导师：McCoy, Drew R.,eadvisor
• 毕业院校：Clark University
• ISBN：9781303119873
• CBH：3570184
• Country：USA
• 语种：English
• FileSize：36765785
• Pages：679

文摘

"It has long been a grave question: The Republican War Dilemma in American History, 1776-1861," explores how American statesmen and thinkers confronted a problem as complex as any in republicanism: "whether any government, not too strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to maintain its own existence, in great emergencies." This question grew out of a combination of Enlightenment concern for individual rights and liberties as the raison dê；tre of proper government and the long history of republics that failed in the flames of war, sedition, and usurpation. Built upon a wide and deep swathe of primary sources, from antiquity to the late nineteenth century, this dissertation reconstructs an intellectual universe largely lost to us and underexplored by historians. Republican thinkers throughout the Western world engaged each other&mdash；and their monarchical critics&mdash；in a centuries long debate over the feasibility of a stable republic and its ability to survive the strains of war. In order to properly situate many of the well-known public policy and war-time debates in American history between the American Revolution and the Civil War, extensive work was conducted in a number of archives across the country while numerous historiographies&mdash；usually separated by intra-disciplinary dividing lines&mdash；were engaged. The result is a remarkable tale of intellectual change and continuity over more than seven decades of American republican experimentation before the project teetered into a long feared internal conflagration. This dissertation, aside from intellectualizing the problem of war and adding it firmly to the wider historical discussion of republicanism in American history, makes a significant secondary contribution to the ongoing exploration of classicism in American history&mdash；particularly after the 1820s. Finally, the intellectual continuity over the long period of American history under consideration in this dissertation marks a fascinating and underappreciated historical development. The intellectual and political approach of American statesmen and intellectuals to all forms of war&mdash；and its implication for the republics survival&mdash；remained remarkably constant, rooted in the intellectual universe of republican fragility and precariousness bequeathed from the American Revolution.