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Conversations and Debates, Third Edition

Philip Abbott

In this updated third edition, with a new chapter on 9/11 and the War on Terror, the author skillfully immerses readers into the politics surrounding ten great crises in our nation’s history. Through the eyes of philosophers, writers, and orators of each period, and the voices of commentators both historical and current, the author outlines political theories in the context of the debates and conversations of the men and women who have struggled to extricate the nation from crisis. The book’s engaging style brings the American political experience to life with clarity and vision. Each chapter ends with an insightful author commentary, an updated and comprehensive bibliographical essay, and a list of major works for each period.

10-digit ISBN: 1-57766-360-8

13-digit ISBN: 978-1-57766-360-7

© 2005

Table of Contents

Chronological Listing of Major Political Speeches and Writing 1630–2003

Introduction

Three American “Languages” / Conservatism and Radicalism / Common Moorings / American Crises

1. Inventing New Communities

Massachusetts: The “City Upon a Hill” / Pennsylvania: The “Holy Experiment” / Virginia: A “Pious and Christian Plantation”

2. Revolution

The Americanization of Republicanism / Varieties of American Republicanism / The American Republican Synthesis / Loyalist Critique

3. Founding

The First Founding and Its Critics / The Second Founding and Its Critics

4. Faction

Federalists / Republicans / Democrats / Whigs

5. Civil War

Abolitionists / The Southern “Reactionary Enlightenment” / Lincoln’s Resolution / The Dilemma of Reconstruction

6. Industrialization

The Promise of Social Darwinism / The Americanization of Spencerism / Applied Social Darwinism / Three Challenges

7. Depression

Hoover, Service Individualism, and the American System / The Challenge of the Depression / FDR, the New Social Contract, and the New Deal / New Deal Critics

8. Cold War

Cold Warriors / Cold War Critics / The Reagan Revolution and the End of the Cold War

9. Discrimination

Black Protest / Feminist Protest

10. 9/11 and the War on Terror

Interregnum: Clinton and 1990s / Individualism and Empire / Three Models of Patriotism / Just War Doctrine and Terrorism