The Founding Fathers in the History of American Politics from Thomas Jefferson to Ronald Reagan

FAIN: FT-60487-13

David Sehat
Georgia State University (Atlanta, GA 30303-3011)

The Founding Fathers are a fixture of modern American politics. In the frequently bitter disputes of contemporary political debate, all sides draw upon the Founders to legitimate their own positions, to critique the positions of others, and to mobilize their own supporters. Every year a remarkable number of Founders-oriented books and movies sustain their political salience. So widespread is the phenomenon that it has become common for historians to refer to "Founders Chic," the somewhat perplexing trend in which the dead white men of the eighteenth century have become intellectual stylish in the twenty-first. Yet Founders Chic raises obvious questions: Why do people invoke the Founders so often in contemporary discourse? How has the use of the Founders in political rhetoric changed over time? And why are the Founders so often the subject of manipulation? I am writing a book on the uses of the Founders in the history of American politics to address these questions.

Associated Products

The Jefferson Rule (How the Founding Fathers Became Infallible and Our Politics Inflexible) (Book)
Title: The Jefferson Rule (How the Founding Fathers Became Infallible and Our Politics Inflexible)
Author: David Sehat
Abstract: Historian David Sehat describes how everyone from liberals to conservatives, secessionists to unionists have sought out the Founding Fathers to defend their policies. Beginning with the debate between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton over the future of the nation, and continuing through the Civil War, the New Deal, the Reagan Revolution, and Obama and the Tea Party, many pols have asked, “What would the Founders do?” instead of “What is the common good today?” Recently both the Right and the Left have used the Founders to sort through such issues as voting rights, campaign finance, free speech, gun control, taxes, and war and peace. They have used an outdated context to make sense of contemporary concerns. This oversimplification obscures our real issues. From Jefferson to this very day we have looked to the eighteenth century to solve our problems, even though the Fathers themselves were a querulous and divided group who rarely agreed. Coming to terms with the past, Sehat suggests, would be the start of a productive debate. And in this account, which is by turns informative, colorful, and witty, he shows us why.
Year: 2016
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9781476779775
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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