Date of Award
9-21-2016
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
History, MA
First Advisor
Gary Edwards
Committee Members
Joseph Key; Justin Castro
Call Number
LD 251 .A566t 2016 D43
Abstract
Early American political ideology centered not simply on concepts of Enlightenment rationalism, neoclassicism, Protestantism, or English common law. Instead, the formation of American government reflected a mixture of many ideologies as part of a grand intellectual experiment. This was neither an exceptional innovation nor the product of a single philosophical heritage. Ultimately, an examination of the revolutionary and constitutional periods’ intellectual characters yields a diverse, multifaceted ideology of political structure and responsibility. Specifically, the presence of anarchist, feminist, abolitionist, and classical realist ideology in the nation’s formative decades reveal the truly diverse intellectual arena in which the founders engaged. Additionally, it exposes the reality that the founders collectively worked to limit the radicalism of their venture, allowing only a certain degree of revolution to shape the young nation.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Deibel, Zachary W., "Intellectual Diversity in Revolutionary America: Anarchism, Feminism, Abolitionism, and Classicism Surrounding the Early National Period (1750-1800)" (2016). Student Theses and Dissertations. 640.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/640
