Reviews for American Natural History Mastogogy and Rambles of a Naturalist, Part 1. 3 Vols in One

The average rating for American Natural History Mastogogy and Rambles of a Naturalist, Part 1. 3 Vols in One based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-12-17 00:00:00 E.h. Koch I've had some depressing encounters on Twitter lately with people who think that "Oh yeah? Slavery!" or "Oh yeah? Indians!" is all you need to say to shut down any praise of the Founders, as well as with people who fault the Founders because they didn't establish a Scandinavian-style social democracy with universal suffrage. It's sent me back to the bookshelf for another round of reading. I intend to read more of what the Founders actually wrote because a lot of people now living in the nation they established seem to believe they had pretty selfish motives. And remember that writing was a laborious process back then, dipping the quill pen in the ink, working by candlelight. So it seems odd that the Founders spent so much time writing about liberty, and how to protect and preserve the republic, and the threat of tyrannical government and how to limit government from taking over our lives, when, according to their modern-day critics, they only cared about making money and oppressing poor people. This book gives the big picture, the American Revolution at 20,000 feet, so to speak. It discusses the events of the Revolution and more importantly the progress and the evolution of the thinking that produced the Revolution and the Constitution that followed. It lays out the arguments made by the people who rebelled against King George III, and gives an explanation of what they hoped to accomplish. I found myself highlighting passage after passage. Many countries have had revolutions and all too often, a tyrant (Robespierre, Napoleon, Lenin, Mao, Castro, Mugabe) takes over and destroys the egalitarian dream of the people who supported the revolution. They throw off one tyrant to find themselves under a new tyranny. But because we had Washington, Jefferson and Madison, etc, that didn't happen in the USA. As the book notes, Washington drew world-wide acclaim and wonder for stepping down and returning to his plantation at the end of his presidency. Wood also discusses the changes the Revolution brought about in education, the fifth estate and charitable organizations. "Unlike liberals of the twenty-first century, the most liberal-minded of the eighteenth century tended to see society as beneficent and government as malevolent." Its pretty much reversed today. So it's very worthwhile to review what the Founders actually said and believed.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-01-04 00:00:00 Curtis Bottoms The Beginnings Of American Democracy The American Revolution remains the formative event in our Nation's history. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln looked back to it to define the significance of the conflict and to restate the ideals and aspirations of our country. In "The American Revolution: A History" the distinguished historian of the American Revolution, Gordon Wood, has written a succinct summary of the Revolution which will give the reader a good overview of the event. The book will allow the reader to think through for him or herself the meaning of our Revolution and to explore further through additional reading as indicated in the bibliography . In the short compass of the study, Wood offers his own interpretation of the importance of the Revolution. It was the source of what he calls "middling democracy". By this phrase, Wood means that any person, regardless of social status, wealth or education had the right to pursue his or her own ends, to find value, and to seek his or her own self-defined interests and economic success. The Revolution broke the hierarchical structures of Europe. We are still, for Wood, living through and developing the insights and consequences of the Revolution. I found the most interesting section of the book was the discussion of the French-Indian War and how it lead Great Britain to place an army on the frontier and to impose certain taxes to pay its cost. From these small beginnings, a Revolution grew. Wood presents a summary of the causes of the Revolution -- a topic difficult and fascinating in itself. Wood briefly discusses the Revolutionary War, and spends somewhat more space discussing the Articles of the Confederation and the experiments of the various states with constitutionalism and independence. Wood has explored this ground before in his longer books, particularly his "The Radicalism of the American Revolution" and it is pivotal to his understanding of the formation of American democracy. Finally Wood discusses the Constitutional Convention and the Federalist Anti-Federalist debate over the ratification of the Constitution. He discusses the significance of the Constitution as a written document (unlike the unwritten Constitution of England) and he suggests how the Constitution led, in a short time and in spite of the Framer's intentions, to the robust "middling democracy" that is the theme of his book. The American Revolution was not one event, but several. (The break with England, War, Articles of Confederation, Constitution) Wood gives each attention here and shows how they were each integrated with the other to produce the beginnings of American democracy. Wood's account both gives an insightful view of the history and also encourages the reader to reflect on how the Revolution continues to shape our country and its values. Robin Friedman