This engaging book reveals Benjamin Franklin's human side--his tastes and habits, his enthusiasms, and his devotion to democracy and the people of the United States. Three hundred years after his birth, we may remember Franklin's famous Autobiography, or his status as framer of the Declaration of Independence and the peace with Great Britain, or his experiments in electricity, or perhaps his sage advice on diligence and thrift. But historian Edmund S. Morgan invites us to meet the man himself, a sociable, good-natured, and extraordinary human being with boundless curiosity about the...
This engaging book reveals Benjamin Franklin's human side--his tastes and habits, his enthusiasms, and his devotion to democracy and the people of the...
The Puritans came to New England not merely to save their souls but to establish a visible kingdom of God, a society where outward conduct would be according to God's laws. This book discusses the desire of the Puritans to be socially virtuous and their wish to force social virtue upon others.
The Puritans came to New England not merely to save their souls but to establish a visible kingdom of God, a society where outward conduct would be...
More than any other single man, George Washington was responsible for bringing success to the American Revolution. But because of the heroic image in which we have cast him and which already enveloped him in this own lifetime, Washington is and was a hard man to know.
More than any other single man, George Washington was responsible for bringing success to the American Revolution. But because of the heroic image in ...
The Revolution is fertile ground for the historian's craft, as these essays attest. Edmund S. Morgan discovers in American protests against British taxation an affirmation of rights that the colonists adhered to with surprising consistency, and that guided them ultimately to independence. Then, after a general reassessment of the importance of the Revolution, he moves to a study of it as an intellectual movement, which challenged the best minds of the period to transform their political world. Next, in studying the ethical basis of the Revolution, Morgan traces the shaping of national...
The Revolution is fertile ground for the historian's craft, as these essays attest. Edmund S. Morgan discovers in American protests against British ta...
In this life of Ezra Stiles, president of Yale University from 1778 to 1795, the noted historian Edmund S. Morgan portrays a man who reflects the thought and temper of an age in New England and the middle colonies.
In this life of Ezra Stiles, president of Yale University from 1778 to 1795, the noted historian Edmund S. Morgan portrays a man who reflects the thou...
A classic of its kind, Edmund S. Morgan's Roger Williams skillfully depicts the intellectual life of the man who, after his expulsion in 1635 from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, founded what would become Rhode Island. As Morgan re-creates the evolution of Williams's thoughts on the nature of the church and the state, he captures with characteristic economy and precision the institutions that informed Williams's worldview, from the Protestant church in England to the Massachusetts government in the seventeenth century. In doing so, Morgan reveals the origins of a perennial and heated...
A classic of its kind, Edmund S. Morgan's Roger Williams skillfully depicts the intellectual life of the man who, after his expulsion in 1635 from ...
This book makes the provocative case here that America has remained politically stable because the Founding Fathers invented the idea of the American people and used it to impose a government on the new nation. His landmark analysis shows how the notion of popular sovereignty--the unexpected offspring of an older, equally fictional notion, the "divine right of kings"--has worked in our history and remains a political force today.
This book makes the provocative case here that America has remained politically stable because the Founding Fathers invented the idea of the American ...
In the American Revolution, Virginians were the most eloquent spokesmen for freedom and quality. George Washington led the Americans in battle against British oppression. Thomas Jefferson led them in declaring independence. Virginians drafted not only the Declaration but also the Constitution and the Bill of Rights; they were elected to the presidency of the United States under that Constitution for thirty-two of the first thirty-six years of its existence. They were all slaveholders. In the new preface Edmund S. Morgan writes: "Human relations among us still suffer from the former...
In the American Revolution, Virginians were the most eloquent spokesmen for freedom and quality. George Washington led the Americans in battle against...
Through a richly detailed account of the genesis, flowering, and decline of the Puritan ideal of a church of the elect in England and America, Professor Morgan offers an important reinterpretation of a pivotal era in New England history.
Historians have generally supposed that the main outlines of the Puritan church were determined in England and Holland and transplanted to the new world. The author convincingly suggests, instead, that the distinguishing characteristic of the New England churches the ideal of a church composed exclusively of true and tested saints developed fully...
Through a richly detailed account of the genesis, flowering, and decline of the Puritan ideal of a church of the elect in England and America, Prof...
'Impressive . . . The authors have given us a searching account of the crisis and provided some memorable portraits of officials in America impaled on the dilemma of having to enforce a measure which they themselves opposed.'--New York Times
'A brilliant contribution to the colonial field. Combining great industry, astute scholarship, and a vivid style, the authors have sought 'to recreate two years of American history.' They have succeeded admirably.'--William and Mary Quarterly
'Required reading for anyone interested in those eventful years preceding the...
'Impressive . . . The authors have given us a searching account of the crisis and provided some memorable portraits of officials in America impaled o...