scholarly journals The Cromwellian Protectorate and the languages of empire

1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 531-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Armitage
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Historical Argument ◽  
Modern Britain ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
American Intellectual ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
American Intellectual History

AbstractThis article recovers some of the classical, constitutional, and religious languages of empire in early-modern Britain by a consideration of the period between the end of the first Anglo-Dutch war in 1654 and the calling of the second Protecloral Parliament in 1656. It examines in particular the strategic and political motivationsfor CromweWs ‘western design’ against the Spanish possessions in the Caribbean and presents the response to thefailure of the design and the oppositiorud literature published around the second Protectoral Parliament as the immediate context for the publication of James Harrington's Oceana (1656). It is argued that Harrington's Machiavellian meditation on imperialism is intended as a critique of the expansion of the British republic, so placing Harrington more firmly within the oppositiorud bloc of the late Protectorate. A concluding section details the recovery of this moment of historical argument in the heat of the opposition to Sir Robert Walpole during the early stages of Anglo-Spanish hostility in 1738—9, and leads to some wider refUctions both on the ideological uses of history in the aeation of the British empire and on the centrality of the languages of empire to an understanding of Anglo-American intellectual history up to the late eighteenth century.

New Directions in American Intellectual History

1980 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 449
Author(s):  
Gene Wise ◽  
John Higham ◽  
Paul K. Conkin
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
New Directions ◽  
American Intellectual ◽  
American Intellectual History

American Intellectual History: A Very Short Introduction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Revolutionary War ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
Westward Expansion ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Intellectual ◽  
American Intellectual History ◽  
American Thought

American Intellectual History: A Very Short Introduction provides an introduction to the history of American thought from the sixteenth century up until the present. Long before the United States was a nation, it was a set of ideas, projected onto the New World by European commentators and explorers. American thought grew from this foundation of expectation and experience, both enriched and challenged over the centuries by developments including the Revolutionary War, westward expansion, the rise of capitalism, the proliferation of diverse religions, immigration, industrialization, and the emergence of the United States as a superpower. This introduction provides an overview of some of the most compelling episodes and abiding preoccupations in American thought, while showing how ideas have been major forces driving the course of American history.

WHAT IS OUR “CANON”? HOW AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL HISTORIANS DEBATE THE CORE OF THEIR FIELD

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID A. HOLLINGER
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Center Of Gravity ◽  
Intellectual Tradition ◽  
Important Indicator ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Specific Research ◽  
The Core ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
American Intellectual ◽  
American Intellectual History

These selected excerpts from a conversation now running nearly a quarter-century about The American Intellectual Tradition: A Sourcebook exemplify the efforts made by specialists in American intellectual history to decide just what constitutes the core of their field. An anthology designed for undergraduates has practical limitations, to be sure, that prevent its table of contents from ever serving as a complete map of a field. Specific research questions, not arguments over canons, properly remain the deepest center of gravity of any cohort of scholars. But assignments to students are one important indicator of what scholar–teachers take to be important, and these assignments are not unrelated to choices these same individuals make about the topics of their monographic contributions. Hence the lively correspondence that my coeditor, Charles Capper, and I have carried on with dozens of colleagues concerning the six editions of the only collection of sources for this field currently in print offers a window on how American intellectual history has changed in the last generation and what are its current directions.

Willie Jones

2019 ◽  
pp. 217-234
Author(s):  
Kyle Scott
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
Individual Liberty ◽  
Political Status ◽  
The North ◽  
Widespread Belief ◽  
American Intellectual ◽  
American Intellectual History

This chapter examines the political thought of Anti-Federalist leader Willie Jones and attempts to situate him in the broader context of American intellectual history. A Virginia native from a prominent family, Jones established a plantation in Halifax County, which he represented in a series of colonial and state assemblies. After the colonies declared independence, Jones took charge of the radical faction in the North Carolina legislature. At the Hillsborough convention of 1788, Jones saw no need for North Carolina to ratify the Constitution immediately. He believed emotional and cultural ties united the thirteen states whatever their political status. North Carolina could join the Union whenever it wished. In the meantime, it could demand amendments to protect individual and states’ rights. Jones’s position reflected the long standing and widespread belief that small republics best protected individual liberty.

Sigonio in Anglo-American Projects to Reform the Imperial Constitution, 1751–1777

2020 ◽  
pp. 95-113
Author(s):  
Mark Somos
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
British Empire ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
American Identity ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Long Term Impact ◽  
Intense Debate

This chapter explores Carlo Sigonio’s long-term impact by zooming in on the nascent United States of America. It shows that Sigonio was seen as a leading comparative constitutional historian and one of the most cited authorities that would-be reformers turned to in the intense debate on the reform of the British imperial constitution in the second half of the eighteenth century. His analyses of the Roman Empire yielded timeless lessons for metropolitan and colonial administrators alike. Most importantly, Sigonio structured his studies of Roman, Athenian, Hebrew, and medieval Italian laws and customs in a way that revealed these complex historical states’ constitutional essence, making comparative analysis possible. This chapter shows why American lawyers, British politicians, and merchants and soldiers with a true British–American identity, explicitly drew on Sigonio’s analysis of Roman colonization in several reform plans for the British Empire, with particular attention to the American colonies.

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