American Honor: The Creation of the Nation's Ideals during the Revolutionary Era
- ISBN-10
- 1469638843
- ISBN-13
- 9781469638843
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 384
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2018-03-19
- Publisher
- UNC Press Books
- Author
- Craig Bruce Smith
Description
The American Revolution was not only a revolution for liberty and freedom, it was also a revolution of ethics, reshaping what colonial Americans understood as "honor" and "virtue." As Craig Bruce Smith demonstrates, these concepts were crucial aspects of Revolutionary Americans' ideological break from Europe and shared by all ranks of society. Focusing his study primarily on prominent Americans who came of age before and during the Revolution—notably John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington—Smith shows how a colonial ethical transformation caused and became inseparable from the American Revolution, creating an ethical ideology that still remains. By also interweaving individuals and groups that have historically been excluded from the discussion of honor—such as female thinkers, women patriots, slaves, and free African Americans—Smith makes a broad and significant argument about how the Revolutionary era witnessed a fundamental shift in ethical ideas. This thoughtful work sheds new light on a forgotten cause of the Revolution and on the ideological foundation of the United States.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
American Honor Killings: Desire and Rage Among Men
By David McConnell“Not only is this book the best sort of true-crime writing, but it is also a stunning exploration of the concept of manhood in America” (Sebastian Junger, New York Times–bestselling author of War).
-
On My Honor: Boy Scouts and the Making of American Youth
By Jay MechlingArchitect Frank Lloyd Wright coined the word to describe average , middle - class citizens of the United States and the " Usonian " houses he designed for them , and I borrow it here . 6. Just as Troop 49's number is ...
-
Honor and Duty: The Chinese American WWII Veterans
By E Samantha ChengHonor and Duty is a tribute Chinese Americans who served in the U.S. Armed Forces during WWII. Biographical information, detailed service record, and photographs provide vivid evidence of their service to the United States.
-
Anpao: An American Indian Odyssey
By Jamake HighwaterAny maiden but Ko-Ko-Mik-e-is, that is, who calims she belongs to the Sun alone. And so Anpao sets off for the house of the Sun to ask permission to marry the woman he loves. But Anpao's journey is not an easy one.
-
Honor in America?: Tocqueville on American Enlightenment
By Laurie M. JohnsonDA 1.2.9.279. 25. Thomas L. Pangle, “The Accommodation of Religion: A Tocquevillian Perspective,” in Religious Liberty in Western Thought, ed. Noel B. Reynolds and W. Cole Durham, Jr. (Emory University Scholars Press, 1996), 305–306.
-
On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting for
By Rick PerryThe book also explains the Scouts' refusal to bend to the winds of “political correctness” by allowing activist homosexual scoutmasters.The ramifications of the legal challenges to Scouting are examined, including how the Boy Scouts of ...
-
Honor Bound: How a Cultural Ideal Has Shaped the American Psyche
By Ryan P. BrownIn Honor Bound, social psychologist Ryan P. Brown integrates social science research, current events, and personal stories to explore and explain how honor underpins nearly every aspect of our lives, from spontaneous bar fights to organized ...
-
Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor: The Forging of American Independence, 1774-1776
By Richard R. Beeman10; among the other biographies of Adams are Mark Puls, Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution (New York, 2006); and John C. Miller, Sam Adams: Pioneer in Propaganda (Boston, 1936). For an outstanding brief portrait of Sam ...
-
Liberalism with Honor
By Sharon R. KrauseInsofar as they inhabit a modern democratic regime , American forms of honor presuppose the principle of the intrinsic dignity of all human beings . As a consequence , honorable Americans more often act to demonstrate or assert their ...
-
Field of Honor: A Novel
By D. L. BirchfieldPremise: "A secret underground civilization of Choctaws, deep beneath the Ouachita Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma, has evolved into a high-tech culture, supported by the labor of slaves kidnapped from the surface."