Description
Book SynopsisPaul Seaton'sPublic Philosophy and Patriotism:The Declaration and Usis a very countercultural book.It advances the provocative thesis that not only is the Declaration worthy of our study today, but its principles and way of thinking about politics can and should be used to judge us and our politics today.That's countercultural.While conservatives still have a warm place for the document in their hearts, one rarely hears them apply it to today's debates.Progressives tend to take two contradictory tacks toward the founding document:on one hand, it's the negligible product of hypocritical white males, on another, it limns the ideals and values of the American project that History is charged with fulfilling.Neither of these views takes the document intellectually seriously.Jefferson, however, articulated a different view when he called the Declaration an expression of the American mind at the time of the Revolution.Here was a self-conscious, self-confident American mind, ready to take on t
