Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic

by Matthew Stewart

Overview

Longlisted for the National Book Award. Where did the ideas come from that became the cornerstone of American democracy?

America’s founders intended to liberate us not just from one king but from the ghostly tyranny of supernatural religion. Drawing deeply on the study of European philosophy, Matthew Stewart brilliantly tracks the ancient, pagan, and continental ideas from which America’s revolutionaries drew their inspiration. In the writings of Spinoza, Lucretius, and other great philosophers, Stewart recovers the true meanings of “Nature’s God,” “the pursuit of happiness,” and the radical political theory with which the American experiment in self-government began.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393351293
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/06/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	580
Sales rank:	411,514
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Matthew Stewart is an independent philosopher and historian who has written extensively about the philosophical origins of the American republic, the history of philosophy, management theory, and the culture of inequality. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review, among other publications. In recent years he has lived in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles, and is currently based in London.

Table of Contents

Preface 1

1 The Dirty Little Screw of the American Revolution 9

2 Pathologies of Freedom 39

3 Epicurus's Dangerous Idea 77

4 On the Genealogy of Nature's God 130

5 Self-Evident Truths 201

6 The Pursuit of Happiness 263

7 The Empire of Reason 314

8 The Religion of Freedom 392

Acknowledgments 437

Notes 439

Index 535

Editorial Reviews

"Impassioned, noble, and necessary."

New Republic - Brook Wilensky-Lanford

"Impressive… refreshing."

Wall Street Journal - Barton Swaim

"[A] splendidly polemical account of the philosophy of the founding fathers."

Prospect (UK) - Jonathan Ree

[A] splendidly polemical account of the philosophy of the founding fathers.--Jonathan Ree "Prospect (UK)"

Brilliant... breathes fresh life into our understanding of the American Revolution. Beautifully written and lucidly argued, Nature's God...will set the agenda for serious discussion of the American Revolution's significance in world history.--Peter S. Onuf, author of The Mind of Thomas Jefferson

Eloquently argued.--Wendy Smith "Los Angeles Times"

Enthralling and important... [A] pleasure to read, its often surprising conclusions supported by elegant prose.--Buzzy Jackson "Boston Globe"

Impassioned, noble, and necessary.--Brook Wilensky-Lanford "New Republic"

Impressive... refreshing.--Barton Swaim "Wall Street Journal"

Splendid...imaginative but never fanciful, even at its most surprising.--Alan Ryan, author of The Making of Modern Liberalism

A lively, powerful, and erudite refutation of the myth that the framers of our secular Constitution had any intention of founding an orthodox Christian nation.--Susan Jacoby, author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism

From the Publisher

"In a book that offers you a chance to rethink much of what you thought you knew about America’s founders, Matthew Stewart traces the little-known influence of secular philosophers, from Epicurus through Spinoza, on the revolutionary generation and offers a lively, powerful, and erudite refutation of the myth that the framers of our secular Constitution had any intention of founding an orthodox Christian nation."

Susan Jacoby

"Splendid…imaginative but never fanciful, even at its most surprising. What lends Nature’s God a good deal of its verve is Matthew Stewart’s unabashed attachment not only to the revolutionaries as they really were but to the skeptical rationalism they embodied. This is partisan scholarship as it should be written, and much needed service to the public."

Alan Ryan

"Eloquently argued."

Los Angeles Times - Wendy Smith

"Enthralling and important … [A] pleasure to read."

Boston Globe - Buzzy Jackson

"Matthew Stewart’s brilliant new book breathes fresh life into our understanding of the American Revolution. Beautifully written and lucidly argued, Nature’s God recovers the lost voices and original intentions of the thoughtful men who made America. Sure to stir controversy on all fronts, Nature’s God will set the agenda for serious discussion of the American Revolution’s significance in world history."

Peter S. Onuf

★ 2014-05-07
Stewart (The Management Myth: Why the Experts Keep Getting it Wrong, 2009, etc.) delivers a penetrating history of an American Revolution not yet finished and a stirring reassertion of the power of ideas unbound by the shackles of superstition.Meticulously annotated and informed by imposing erudition, the book is a lively chronicle of the years leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, especially noteworthy for detailing the unsung contributions (in word and deed) of such revolutionary figures as Ethan Allen and Thomas Young. It is also an admirably lucid survey of radical philosophical thought on the nature of man and the cosmos, a guiding principle grounded in reason and transmitted from Epicurus via the poet Lucretius, further developed by the great philosophical minds of the 17th century and embraced by the Founding Fathers. Stewart's capacity to render undiluted the complex deliberations of these thinkers glows on the page, notwithstanding the occasional Mobius strip of esoterica. The author locates these ideas in the heterodox, deist origins of the Republic, with a focus on corporeal reality, not spiritual mysteries. In doing so, he reveals the true and enduring significance of the American experiment: not merely as a revolt against an imperial monarch, but against the global reach and oppressive artifice of supernatural religion. Stewart gives the simplistic "common religious consciousness" and much presumed wisdom a fair hearing, then demolishes them utterly, though not dismissing what is useful in faith. By closely analyzing the writings of Jefferson, Young, Franklin, Paine et al., he quashes the delusion that America was established as a "Christian" nation.In affording a fresh perspective on the difficult but exhilarating birth of this country, Stewart shows that the often superficially misunderstood words of the Declaration of Independence are even more profound than they appear.

Kirkus Reviews