Founding Fanatics: Extremism and the Formation of American Democracy

Scholars and citizens have often assumed that dispassionate rationality, reciprocity, and nonviolent tolerance are necessary conditions for the sustained development of democracy. Accordingly, they reject oppositional parties that spurn consensus and terms of mutual respect-and often use force to accomplish their political goals-denouncing extremists as antidemocratic.

Founding Fanaticsquestions this understanding, examining how moments of tension, violence, and extremism in the US have some...