The Political Theory of the American Founding

Natural Rights, Public Policy, and the Moral Conditions of Freedom

By: Thomas G. West

Narrated by: Christopher Grove

Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

This book provides a complete overview of the American Founders' political theory, covering natural rights, natural law, state of nature, social compact, consent, and the policy implications of these ideas. The book is intended as a response to the current scholarly consensus, which holds that the Founders' political thought is best understood as an amalgam of liberalism, republicanism, and perhaps other traditions. West argues that, on the contrary, the foundational documents overwhelmingly point to natural rights as the lens through which all politics is understood. The book explores in depth how the Founders' supposedly republican policies on citizen character formation do not contradict but instead complement their liberal policies on property and economics. Additionally, the book shows how the Founders' embraced other traditions in their politics, such as common law and Protestantism.

©2017 Thomas G. West (P)2020 Tantor

Great read!

I think every American read this book to better understand where we come from and who we are trying to be as a country.

Every American should read this book

The political ideas that governed the founding of the republic of the United States of America are the most influential political ideas of the modern world. Yet they are not taught deeply at most American schools and are widely mistaught by most academic writers on the subject. Thomas G West has had to perform an archeology to find out what the founding generation actually believed about human nature and what politics can be expected to achieve. Every American should read this book if only to understand what the language of the Declaration, the Constitution and the Federalist Papers really means. West makes clear that the founding generation had a distinct and coherent politics philosophy in the natural rights tradition. If we don't make the effort of understanding this worldview, we don't understand our own country or the language we are speaking.

Wow! I learned so much from this book!

Listening to this book improved my education and understanding of what it means to be an American citizen. It presents more than I could retain in one listening. I will listen to it again. I also purchased the paperback so I could study specific sections of interest to me.

I highly recommend this book regardless of partisan affiliation.

Outstanding must read

Compelling, very readable, and thorough assessment. I will be recommending this book for many years to come to those who seriously want to study and reflect on the U.S. founding.