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Nature's God

The Heretical Origins of the American Republic

Matthew Stewart

$57.95

Paperback

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English
Wiley
07 August 2015
Not only the erudite Thomas Jefferson, the wily and elusive Ben Franklin, and the underappreciated Thomas Paine, but also Ethan Allen, the hero of the Green Mountain Boys, and Thomas Young, the forgotten Founder who kicked off the Boston Tea Party - these radicals who founded America set their sights on a revolution of the mind.

Derided as infidels and  atheists in their own time, they wanted to liberate us not just from one king but from the tyranny of supernatural religion.  The ideas that inspired them were neither British nor Christian but largely ancient, pagan, and continental: the fecund universe of the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius, the potent (but nontranscendent) natural divinity of the Dutch heretic Benedict de Spinoza.

Drawing deeply on the study of European philosophy, Matthew Stewart pursues a genealogy of the philosophical ideas from which America's revolutionaries drew their inspiration, all scrupulously researched and documented and enlivened with storytelling of the highest order.  Along the way, he uncovers the true meanings of  Nature's God,   self-evident,  and many other phrases crucial to our understanding of the American experiment but now widely misunderstood.

Stewart's lucid and passionate investigation surprises, challenges, enlightens, and entertains at every turn, as it spins a true tale and a persuasive, exhilarating argument about the founding principles of American government and the sources of our success in science, medicine, and the arts.

By:  
Imprint:   Wiley
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 211mm,  Width: 140mm,  Spine: 38mm
Weight:   583g
ISBN:   9780393351293
ISBN 10:   0393351297
Pages:   576
Publication Date:  
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Further / Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Matthew Stewart is the author of Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic, The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World and The Management Myth: Debunking the Modern Philosophy of Business. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Reviews for Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic

A lively, powerful, and erudite refutation of the myth that the framers of our secular Constitution had any intention of founding an orthodox Christian nation. -- Susan Jacoby, author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism Splendid...imaginative but never fanciful, even at its most surprising. -- Alan Ryan, author of The Making of Modern Liberalism Brilliant... breathes fresh life into our understanding of the American Revolution. Beautifully written and lucidly argued, Nature's God...will set the agenda for serious discussion of the American Revolution's significance in world history. -- Peter S. Onuf, author of The Mind of Thomas Jefferson Impressive... refreshing. -- Barton Swaim - Wall Street Journal Eloquently argued. -- Wendy Smith - Los Angeles Times Enthralling and important... [A] pleasure to read, its often surprising conclusions supported by elegant prose. -- Buzzy Jackson - Boston Globe [A] splendidly polemical account of the philosophy of the founding fathers. -- Jonathan Ree - Prospect (UK) Impassioned, noble, and necessary. -- Brook Wilensky-Lanford - New Republic


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