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Title details for Common Sense Nation by Robert Curry - Available

Common Sense Nation

by Robert Curry
ebook
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“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
This sentence is perfectly familiar. We know it as a core principle of our founding. But few, if any of us consider why Jefferson wrote it in exactly this way. Why “unalienable rights" and not simply rights? Why “self-evident" truths and not simply truths? Why does the Declaration make these distinctions? Do they really matter?
If these questions are challenging or Jefferson's words seem esoteric, it is because we no longer conduct our politics in the language of the Founders and we are no longer able to think as they once thought. In Congress and the media, political arguments are advanced by a torrent of policy studies and “expert" opinions—not on the basis of self-evident truths, unalienable rights, and definitely not in the language of the Founders.
Common Sense Nation is a potent re-introduction to the political ideas of the Founders—in their own words and on their terms. It is dedicated to the proposition that the only way to fully unlock the profound and distinctive power of American self-government is to understand it as its inventors did. Common Sense Nation reclaims the language of liberty from entities that prefer to interpret our freedoms for us. For in knowing the Founders as they knew themselves, readers will learn the surprising depths of their own political powers as American citizens.

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Publisher: Encounter Books

Kindle Book

  • Release date: November 24, 2015

OverDrive Read

  • ISBN: 9781594038266
  • File size: 540 KB
  • Release date: November 24, 2015

EPUB ebook

  • ISBN: 9781594038266
  • File size: 540 KB
  • Release date: November 24, 2015

Formats

Kindle Book
OverDrive Read
EPUB ebook

subjects

History Philosophy Politics Nonfiction

Languages

English

“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
This sentence is perfectly familiar. We know it as a core principle of our founding. But few, if any of us consider why Jefferson wrote it in exactly this way. Why “unalienable rights" and not simply rights? Why “self-evident" truths and not simply truths? Why does the Declaration make these distinctions? Do they really matter?
If these questions are challenging or Jefferson's words seem esoteric, it is because we no longer conduct our politics in the language of the Founders and we are no longer able to think as they once thought. In Congress and the media, political arguments are advanced by a torrent of policy studies and “expert" opinions—not on the basis of self-evident truths, unalienable rights, and definitely not in the language of the Founders.
Common Sense Nation is a potent re-introduction to the political ideas of the Founders—in their own words and on their terms. It is dedicated to the proposition that the only way to fully unlock the profound and distinctive power of American self-government is to understand it as its inventors did. Common Sense Nation reclaims the language of liberty from entities that prefer to interpret our freedoms for us. For in knowing the Founders as they knew themselves, readers will learn the surprising depths of their own political powers as American citizens.

Expand title description text
History Philosophy Politics Nonfiction
  • Details

    Publisher:
    Encounter Books

    Kindle Book
    Release date: November 24, 2015

    OverDrive Read
    ISBN: 9781594038266
    File size: 540 KB
    Release date: November 24, 2015

    EPUB ebook
    ISBN: 9781594038266
    File size: 540 KB
    Release date: November 24, 2015

  • Creators
  • Formats
    Kindle Book
    OverDrive Read
    EPUB ebook
  • Languages
    English
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