Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America

封面
Rowman & Littlefield, 1997 - 219页
It is commonly, but incorrectly, asserted that because Washington and Jefferson owned slaves, because women, even after the American Revolution, enjoyed virtually no rights, and because the poor and those without property were denied the basic tenets of democratic participation, the Founders were frauds who never really believed that "all men were created equal." West demonstrates why such politically correct interpretations are not only dead wrong, but dangerous. Because our understanding of the Founders so profoundly influences our opinion of contemporary America, this book explains why their views, and particularly the constitutional order they created, are still worthy of our highest respect. West proves that the Founders were indeed sincere in their belief of universal human rights and in their commitment to democracy. By contrasting the Founders' ideas of liberty and equality with today's, West persuasively concludes that contemporary notions bear almost no resemblance to the concepts originally articulated by the Founders.
 

目录

Slavery
1
Property Rights
37
Women and the Right to Vote
71
Women and the Family
85
Was the Founding Undemocratic? The Property Requirement for Voting
111
Poverty and Welfare
131
Immigration and the Moral Conditions of Citizenship
147
Afterword
175
Notes
181
Index
211
About the Author
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