The issue of religious liberty has gained ever-increasing attention among policy makers and the public. Whereas politicians have long championed the idea of religious freedom and tolerance, the actual achievement of these goals has been an arduous battle for religious minorities. What motivates political leaders to create laws providing for greater religious liberty? In contrast to scholars who argue that religious liberty results from the spread of secularization and modern ideas, Anthony Gill argues that religious liberty results from interest-based calculations of secular rulers. Using insights from political economists, Gill develops a theory of the origins of religious liberty based upon the political and economic interests of governing officials. Political leaders are most likely to permit religious freedom when it enhances their own political survival, tax revenue, and the economic welfare of their country. He explores his theory using cases from British America, Latin America,
The Idea of Latin America is a geo-political manifesto which insists on the need to leave behind an idea which belonged to the nation-building mentality of nineteenth-century Europe.Charts the history
From the mid-nineteenth century until the 1930s, many Latin American leaders faced a difficult dilemma regarding the idea of race. On the one hand, they aspired to an ever-closer connection to Europe
The companion volume to the twelve-hour PBS series from the acclaimed filmmaker behind The Civil War, Baseball, and The WarAmerica’s national parks spring from an idea as radical as the Declaration of
In Native American Environmentalism the history of indigenous peoples in North America is brought into dialogue with key environmental terms such as “wilderness” and “nature.” The conflict between Chr
Since the early days of the American republic, political thinkers have maintained that a grossly unequal division of property, wealth, and power would lead to the erosion of democratic life. Yet over
By examining the unique problems that 'blackness' signifies in Moby-Dick, Pierre, 'Benito Cereno' and 'The Encantadas', Christopher Freeburg analyzes how Herman Melville grapples with the social realities of racial difference in nineteenth-century America. Where Melville's critics typically read blackness as either a metaphor for the haunting power of slavery or an allegory of moral evil, Freeburg asserts that blackness functions as the site where Melville correlates the sociopolitical challenges of transatlantic slavery and US colonial expansion with philosophical concerns about mastery. By focusing on Melville's iconic interracial encounters, Freeburg reveals the important role blackness plays in Melville's portrayal of characters' arduous attempts to seize their own destiny, amass scientific knowledge and perfect themselves. A valuable resource for scholars and graduate students in American literature, this text will also appeal to those working in American, African American and pos
By examining the unique problems that 'blackness' signifies in Moby-Dick, Pierre, 'Benito Cereno' and 'The Encantadas', Christopher Freeburg analyzes how Herman Melville grapples with the social realities of racial difference in nineteenth-century America. Where Melville's critics typically read blackness as either a metaphor for the haunting power of slavery or an allegory of moral evil, Freeburg asserts that blackness functions as the site where Melville correlates the sociopolitical challenges of transatlantic slavery and US colonial expansion with philosophical concerns about mastery. By focusing on Melville's iconic interracial encounters, Freeburg reveals the important role blackness plays in Melville's portrayal of characters' arduous attempts to seize their own destiny, amass scientific knowledge and perfect themselves. A valuable resource for scholars and graduate students in American literature, this text will also appeal to those working in American, African American and pos
This book examines the ideas of the Founders with regard to establishing a national university and what those ideas say about their understanding of America. It offers the first study on the idea of a national university and how the Founders understood it as an important feature in an educational system that would sustain the American experiment in democracy. Their ideas about education suggest that shaping the American mind is essential to the success of the Constitution and that this is something that future generations would need to continue to do.
This book examines the ideas of the Founders with regard to establishing a national university and what those ideas say about their understanding of America. It offers the first study on the idea of a national university and how the Founders understood it as an important feature in an educational system that would sustain the American experiment in democracy. Their ideas about education suggest that shaping the American mind is essential to the success of the Constitution and that this is something that future generations would need to continue to do.
"Many scholars have written about the white readers and patrons of the Harlem Renaissance, but during the period many black writers, publishers, and editors worked to foster a cadre of African America
No social class has generated more controversy than the middle class, and nowhere has that class been more controversial than in Latin America. Once believed not to exist, then later the great hope of
The public image of Arabs in America has been radically affected by the `war on terror'. But stereotypes of Arabs, manifested for instance in Orientalist representations of Sheherazade and The Arabian
In nineteenth-century Britain, the effects of democracy in America were seen to spread from Congress all the way down to the personal habits of its citizens. Bringing together political theorists, his
The amazing story of what Inc. magazine called ?the coolest little startup in America.” ? Tom Szaky dropped out of Princeton a decade ago to found TerraCycle, a company that makes the nonrecyclable r
"Is there an idea or a dream that is lingering in the back of your mind this Christmas season?" asks the Reverend Robert H. Schuller in Joy to the World: Inspirational Christmas Messages from America'
First published in 1781, this work of the Abbé Raynal (1713–69) is the English translation of the last volume of his widely known and influential Philosophy and Political History of the East and West Indies which first appeared in 1770. Raynal's work begins with a description of the distressed state of England in 1763 and her calls for help from the colonies in the build-up to the war. Written during the Revolution itself, the book speculates about the ending of the conflict in chapters entitled 'What ought to be the politics of the House of Bourbon, if victorious' and 'What idea should be formed of the thirteen united provinces'. Raynal's work was heavily criticised by, among others, Thomas Paine, who published A Letter Addressed to the Abbé Raynal on the Affairs of North-America (also reissued in this series) in 1782, correcting what he perceived as Raynal's mistakes and false assumptions.
A Spaniard originally from Italy, the polymath Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci (1702–1753), known as Boturini, traveled to New Spain in 1736. Becoming fascinated by the Mesoamerican cultures of the New Worl
Whether your idea of travel at its finest is trekking through Europe with a backpack, a map and a foreign-language dictionary; road-tripping across America in a fully loaded RV; or cruising the Caribb
