Founding Visions: The Ideas, Individuals, and Intersections that Created America

by Lance Banning, Todd Estes (Editor), Gordon S. Wood (Foreword by)

Overview

Lance Banning was one of the most distinguished historians of his generation. His first book, The Jeffersonian Persuasion: Evolution of a Party Ideology, was a groundbreaking study of the ideas and principles that influenced political conflict in the early American Republic. His revisionist masterpiece, The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal Republic, received the Merle Curti Award in Intellectual History from the Organization of American Historians and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Banning was assembling this collection of his best and most representative writings on the Founding era when his untimely death stalled the project just short of its completion. Now, thanks to the efforts of editor Todd Estes, this illuminating resource is finally available. Founding Visions showcases the work of a historian who shaped the intellectual debates of his time. Featuring a foreword by Gordon S. Wood, the volume presents Banning's most seminal and insightful essays to a new generation of students, scholars, and general readers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813152844
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	12/26/2014
Pages:	372
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Lance Banning (1942–2006) taught at Brown University and the University of Kentucky and held a senior Fulbright appointment at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands in 1997. During his prolific career, he held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Humanities Center, and the Center for the History of Freedom. Todd Estes is associate professor of history at Oakland University and the author of The Jay Treaty Debate, Public Opinion, and the Evolution of Early American Political Culture. Estes received his PhD from the University of Kentucky, under Lance Banning's direction.

Table of Contents

Foreword Gordon S. Wood vii

Introduction 1

Part 1 The Enduring Issues of the American Revolution, 1776-1815 11

The Problem of Power: Parties, Aristocracy, and Democracy in Revolutionary Thought 13

Part 2 Republicanism, Liberalism, and the Great Transition 33

Jeffersonian Ideology Revisited: Liberal and Classical Ideas in the New American Republic 37

The Republican Interpretation: Retrospect and Prospect 57

Some Second Thoughts on Virtue and the Course of Revolutionary Thinking 81

Quid Transit? Paradigms and Process in the Transformation of Republican Ideas 101

Part 3 The Constitution 107

The Constitutional Convention 111

The Federalist Papers 133

1787 and 1776: Patrick Henry, James Madison, the Constitution, and the Revolution 145

Part 4 James Madison 173

James Madison and the Nationalists, 1780-1783 177

The Hamiltonian Madison: A Reconsideration 211

The Practicable Sphere of a Republic: James Madison, the Constitutional Convention, and the Emergence of Revolutionary Federalism 237

Part 5 The First Party Conflict 265

Political Economy and the Creation of the Federal Republic 269

The Jeffersonians: First Principles 313

Acknowledgments 343

Appendix: Bibliography of Published Works by Lance Banning 347

Copyrights and Permissions 357

Index 359

Editorial Reviews

Founding Visions: The Ideas, Individuals, and Intersections That Created America is an anthology of thirteen fine essays by prizewinning historian of the American Revolution Lance Banning. [...] [T]he essays in Founding Visions are exemplary.

Journal of Southern History

Lance Banning's balanced but penetrating view of historical materials makes him a vital mediator in scholarly disputes, one who knows how to bring light rather than heat to controversies better understood as joint contributions. Each of these essays also exhibits a different methodological approach to the all-important question of 'what actually happened.' As such, this collection reaches far beyond those interested in the foundations of the American republic. Every historian, whether beginning or advanced, will benefit from reading this book.

Robert A. Ferguson

The work represents an impressive collection that is an essential companion to any serious student of the intellectual issues of the early Republic.

Southern Historian

Banning's skill as an essayist shines here...

San Francisco Book Review

Banning's impeccable scholarship has shaped the way we think about early American history, and the essays in this volume show him at the peak of his very considerable powers.

Peter S. Onuf

"Lance Banning's balanced but penetrating view of historical materials makes him a vital mediator in scholarly disputes, one who knows how to bring light rather than heat to controversies better understood as joint contributions. Each of these essays also exhibits a different methodological approach to the all-important question of 'what actually happened.' As such, this collection reaches far beyond those interested in the foundations of the American republic. Every historian, whether beginning or advanced, will benefit from reading this book." — Robert A. Ferguson, Columbia University

"Banning's impeccable scholarship has shaped the way we think about early American history, and the essays in this volume show him at the peak of his very considerable powers." — Peter S. Onuf, Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies, Monticello

"Banning's skill as an essayist shines here..." — San Francisco Book Review

" Founding Visions: The Ideas, Individuals, and Intersections That Created America is an anthology of thirteen fine essays by prizewinning historian of the American Revolution Lance Banning.

[...] [T]he essays in Founding Visions are exemplary." — Journal of Southern History

"The work represents an impressive collection that is an essential companion to any serious student of the intellectual issues of the early Republic." — Southern Historian

From the Publisher