Reclaiming the American Revolution: The Kentucky and Virgina Resolutions and Their Legacy

ISBN-13: 9781403963031 / Angielski / Twarda / 2004 / 238 str.

Jr. William J. Watkins

Opis

Reclaiming the American Revolution examines the struggles for political ascendancy between Federalists and the Republicans in the early days of the American Republic viewed through the lens of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions authored by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Jefferson and Madison saw the Alien and Sedition Acts as a threat to states' rights, as well as indicative of a national government that sought unlimited power. The Resolutions sought to return the nation to the tenets of the Constitution, in which rights for all were protected by checking the power of the national government. Watkins examines the two sides of this important controversy in early American history and demonstrates the Resolutions' relevance to current politics.

Recenzje

"With historical knowledge that one can only wish more could possess, Watkins has brought our attention back to Jefferson's and Madison's constitutional commentary in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798-1800 and their illuminating relation to American history." - Clyde N. Wilson, Professor of History, University of South Carolina

"With Reclaiming the American Revolution, we have a thorough, thoughtful, and important study of a significant subject that has been too long neglected." - Joyce O. Appleby, Professor of History, UCLA; past president of Organization of American Historians and American Historical Association

"William Watkins' important book, Reclaiming the American Revolution, is intriguing and controversial: it is based on much research, and it is full of interest for the questions it raises about federal-state relations." - Robert L. Middlekauf, Preston Hotchkiss Professor of American History, University of California, Berkeley

Spis treści

Foreword Acknowledgments List of Illustrations Introduction Monocrats and Jacobins Legislation and Persecution The Principles of 1798 Influence and Resolutions Consolidation Lessons for Today Appendices Jefferson's Draft of the Kentucky Resolution Kentucky Resolution of 1798 Virginia Resolution of 1798 Kentucky Resolution of 1799

O autorze

WIILIAM J. WATKINS, Jr. is an attorney who specializes in constitutional law. He has written several articles on legal history, and is a research fellow at the Independent Institute in California, USA.