Common Sense : A Political History / Sophia Rosenfeld.
2011
JA83 .R724 2011
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Title
Common Sense : A Political History / Sophia Rosenfeld.
Author
ISBN
9780674061286
Published
Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2011]
Copyright
©2014
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (368 p.) : 14 halftones
Item Number
10.4159/harvard.9780674061286 doi
Call Number
JA83 .R724 2011
Dewey Decimal Classification
320.01/1
Summary
Common sense has always been a cornerstone of American politics. In 1776, Tom Paine's vital pamphlet with that title sparked the American Revolution. And today, common sense-the wisdom of ordinary people, knowledge so self-evident that it is beyond debate-remains a powerful political ideal, utilized alike by George W. Bush's aw-shucks articulations and Barack Obama's down-to-earth reasonableness. But far from self-evident is where our faith in common sense comes from and how its populist logic has shaped modern democracy. Common Sense: A Political History is the first book to explore this essential political phenomenon.The story begins in the aftermath of England's Glorious Revolution, when common sense first became a political ideal worth struggling over. Sophia Rosenfeld's accessible and insightful account then wends its way across two continents and multiple centuries, revealing the remarkable individuals who appropriated the old, seemingly universal idea of common sense and the new strategic uses they made of it. Paine may have boasted that common sense is always on the side of the people and opposed to the rule of kings, but Rosenfeld demonstrates that common sense has been used to foster demagoguery and exclusivity as well as popular sovereignty. She provides a new account of the transatlantic Enlightenment and the Age of Revolutions, and offers a fresh reading on what the eighteenth century bequeathed to the political ferment of our own time. Far from commonsensical, the history of common sense turns out to be rife with paradox and surprise.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Aug 2021)
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Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Ghost of Common Sense
Chapter 2. Everyman's Perception of the World
Chapter 3. The Radical Uses of Bon Sens
Chapter 4. Building a Common Sense Republic
Chapter 5. Making War on Revolutionary Reason
Chapter 6. Königsberg to New York
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Ghost of Common Sense
Chapter 2. Everyman's Perception of the World
Chapter 3. The Radical Uses of Bon Sens
Chapter 4. Building a Common Sense Republic
Chapter 5. Making War on Revolutionary Reason
Chapter 6. Königsberg to New York
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index