Natural Rights Individualism and Progressivism in American Political Philosophy: Volume 29, Part 2

by Ellen Frankel Paul (Editor), Jeffrey Paul (Editor), Fred D. Miller, Jr (Editor)

Overview

The essays in this collection investigate two political traditions and their critical interactions. The first series of essays deals with the development of natural rights individualism, some examining its origins in the thought of the seminal political theorist, John Locke, and the influential constitutional theorist, Montesquieu, others the impact of their theories on intellectual leaders during the American Revolution and the Founding era, and still others the culmination of this tradition in the writings of nineteenth-century individualists such as Lysander Spooner. The second series of essays focuses on the Progressive repudiation of natural rights individualism and its far-reaching effect on American politics and public policy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107641945
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/27/2012
Series:	Social Philosophy and Policy , #292
Pages:	389
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; Acknowledgments; Contributors; 1. The ground of Locke's law of nature Thomas G. West; 2. Montesquieu's natural rights constitutionalism Paul A. Rahe; 3. The idea of rights in the imperial crisis Craig Yirush; 4. Thompson on declaring the laws and rights of nature C. Bradley; 5. Lysander Spooner: nineteenth-century America's last natural rights theorist Eric Mack; 6. Progressivism and the doctrine of natural rights James W. Ceaser; 7. Some second thoughts on progressivism and rights Eldon J. Eisenach; 8. Freedom, history, and race in progressive thought Tiffany Jones Miller; 9. The progressive era assault on individualism and property rights James W. Ely, Jr; 10. Saving Locke from Marx: the labor theory of value in intellectual property theory Adam Mossoff; 11. Roosevelt, Wilson, and the democratic theory of national progressivism Ronald J. Pestritto; 12. On the separation of powers: liberal and progressive constitutionalism Michael Zuckert.

Editorial Reviews

"The insolvency of our national government and several liberal Democratic states, Detroit's bankruptcy, and the continuing struggles of European welfare states suggest that the Progressive answer, whatever it may be, is not as viable as our dominant intellectual culture has thought … The essays present scholarship from a range of disciplines, including intellectual history, political science, American history, philosophy, and law … such collaborations help to redress the imbalance of views in higher education and our elite culture, which is an element of our worsening cultural insolvency."
Paul O. Carrese, Claremont Review of Books

From the Publisher