Description
Book SynopsisDistrust of public institutions, which reached critical proportions in Britain and the United States in the first two decades of the twenty-first century, was an important theme of public discourse in Britain and colonial America during the early modern period. Demonstrating broad chronological and thematic range, the historian Brian P. Levack explains that trust in public institutions is more tenuous and difficult to restore once it has been betrayed than trust in one''s family, friends, and neighbours, because the vast majority of the populace do not personally know the officials who run large national institutions. Institutional distrust shaped the political, legal, economic, and religious history of England, Scotland, and the British colonies in America. It provided a theoretical and rhetorical foundation for the two English revolutions of the seventeenth century and the American Revolution in the late eighteenth century. It also inspired reforms of criminal procedure, changes in t
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Trust, Distrust, and History 2: John Locke and Trust in Government 3: Distrust of Legal Institutions 4: Distrust of Financial and Commercial Institutions 5: Distrust of Ecclesiastical Institutions 6: The Crisis of Institutional Trust, 1970-2020 Conclusion
