@article{1478230,
      recid = {1478230},
      author = {BLOCK, James E., },
      title = {A Nation of Agents /},
      pages = {1 online resource (672 p.)},
      abstract = {In this sweeping reinterpretation of American political  culture, James Block offers a new perspective on the  formation of the modern American self and society. Block  roots both self and society in the concept of agency,  rather than liberty, and dispenses with the national myth  of the "sacred cause of liberty"--with the Declaration of  Independence as its "American scripture." Instead, he  recovers the early modern conception of agency as the true  synthesis emerging from America's Protestant and liberal  cultural foundations. Block traces agency doctrine from its  pre-Commonwealth English origins through its development  into the American mainstream culture on the eve of the  twentieth century. The concept of agency that prevailed in  the colonies simultaneously released individuals from  traditional constraints to participate actively and  self-reliantly in social institutions, while confining them  within a new set of commitments. Individual initiative was  now firmly bounded by the modern values and ends of  personal Protestant religiosity and collective liberal  institutional authority. As Block shows, this complex  relation of self to society lies at the root of the  American character. A Nation of Agents is a new reading of  what the "first new nation" did and did not achieve. It  will enable us to move beyond long-standing national myths  and grasp both the American achievement and its legacy for  modernity.Table of Contents: Preface 1. The American  Narrative in Crisis Part I. The English Origins of the  American Self and Society 2. The Early Puritan Insurgents  and the Origins of Agency 3. The Protestant Revolutionaries  and the Emerging Society of Agents 4. Thomas Hobbes and the  Founding of the Liberal Politics of Agency 5. John Locke  and the Mythic Society of Free Agents Part II. The  Ascendancy of Agency and the First New Nation 6. The Great  Awakening and the Emergent Culture of Agency 7. The  Revolutionary Triumph of Agency Part III. The Dilemma of  Nationhood 8. The Liberal Idyll amidst Republican Realities  9. From the Idyll: Liberation and Reversal in a World  without Bounds Part IV. The Creation of an Agency  Civilization 10. National Revival as the Crucible of Agency  Character 11. From Sectarian Discord to Civil Religion 12.  The Protestant Agent in Liberal Economics 13. John Dewey  and the Modern Synthesis Conclusion: The Recovery of Agency  Notes Index Reviews of this book: A Nation of Agents is a  work of extravagant erudition and originality. James E.  Block has read voraciously in the sources, seen things that  few have seen before, and put them together as none have  done before. He sets forth a new view of American culture,  threading his thesis through three centuries of American  thought and the preceding century of English thinking  besides.--Michael Zuckerman, Journal of American  HistoryReviews of this book: What a wonder then is James  Block's book, a daring master narrative and bracing  theoretical exercise of the first order. It promises and  delivers nothing less than a fundamental recasting of 'the  American path to a modern self and society.'--Robert  Westbrook, Christian CenturyReviews of this book: James  Block's big, ambitious A Nation of Agents leaves no doubt  about its aspirations in the contest to solve the Gordian  knot of the relationship between the one and the many in  American social thought.The subtlety and acuity with which  Block develops these themes through scores of thinkers and  over 500 pages can scarcely be exaggerated. A Nation of  Agents is a genuinely prodigious work of  scholarship.--Daniel T. Rodgers, Modern Intellectual  HistoryThis is an original and exciting work of  scholarship, in which the idea of agency takes on the  characteristics of a deep cultural imperative in American  life. Block's agency thesis is at once a genealogy of  modern American identity and a theoretical exploration of  the horizon within which American political and moral  self-reflection is conducted.--Eldon J. Eisenach, The  University of TulsaThe most remarkable aspect of this book  is the author's ability to weave a single thread -- the  thread of "agency" -- through four centuries of  Anglo-American intellectual history. Block's great  achievement is to propound a new "common theme" to American  history. A Nation of Agents is a beacon for scholars  seeking a usable past. If ever intellectual history is to  regain its prominence in the field of American history it  will require works like this.--Harry S. Stout, Yale  University},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1478230},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674022201},
}