America as History

Author(s):  
Axel Körner

This chapter examines early Italian writings on the history of the American War of Independence, including Carlo Botta's History of the War of Independence of the United States of America (1809), Carlo Giuseppe Londonio's three-volume Storia delle colonie inglesi (1812–1813), and Giuseppe Compagnoni's twenty-nine-volume Storia dell'America (1829). The chapter compares the context in which these works were created to the changing responses they generated during the later course of the Risorgimento. It also draws on these writings to discuss historiography as political thought, arguing that most Italian historians writing about the American Revolution presented the United States as a political reality far removed from European experiences. Even 500 years after the American Declaration of Independence, Italian references to the United States did not necessarily mean an open endorsement of popular sovereignty.

Author(s):  
Axel Körner

This chapter examines how protagonists of the Italian revolutions of 1848, including Giuseppe Montanelli and Carlo Cattaneo, engaged with American political institutions by looking at the cases of Lombardy, Tuscany, and Sicily. Before discussing the role played by the United States of America in Italian political thought of 1848, the chapter considers Italian experience of the revolutions of 1820–1821 and 1830–1831, both of which marked a watershed for the peninsula's national movement. It shows that Italian revolutionaries addressed the United States with very different emphasis, illustrating how references to the United States could serve very different ideological purposes. With respect to Tuscany's long history of engagement with the United States, there were far fewer references to American political institutions than for instance in Sicily, where the revolutionaries adopted a monarchical constitution. The chapter also analyzes Cattaneo's involvement in the Revolution in Lombardy and his understanding of American democracy.


2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfonso MONTAGNE V

The life of Dr. Juan Byron fills of pride the history of medicine of our nation. Peruvian by birth, he lived in Lima during the second half of the IXI century. Survivor of the war against Chile where his knowledge saved many lives, he was the founder of the medical society “Union Fernandina” and of its journal “Crónica Médica”. Journalist, author of dramas, meteorologist, poliglot, bacteriologist and epidemiologist, researcher and teacher of great prestige in the United States of America and a martyr of medicine. None the less this has not been enough spread. Being close to the centennial of his dead (8th May 1,995), I believe it is the right time to make known the most important aspects of his life.


1996 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
G. K. Huysamen

In an earlier article, the psychometrics of various fair selection models that had been proposed in the United States of America in the late 1960s, early 1970s were presented. The purpose of the present article is to discuss the subsequent history of the application of these models in personnel selection in that country and to view its implications for the South African situation. Because the question of fair selection models ties in with the issue of affirmative action, a brief history of this issue as it pertains to personnel selection is also given. Key decisions of the American Supreme Court that have a bearing on this matter are also reviewed. The failure to widely apply these fair selection models may be attributed to the prevalent socio-political context which favours the preferential treatment of certain groups but is hesitant to specify the particulars and limits of such treatment. Opsomming 'n Vorige artikel het die psigometi-ika onderliggend aan verskeie billike keuringsmodelle wat in die laat sestigerjare, vroee sewentigerjare in die Verenigde State van Amerika voorgestel is, behandel. Die doel met die onderhawige artikel is om 'n oorsig te verskaf van die daaropvolgende geskiedenis van die toepassing van daardie modelle in personeelkeuring in daardie land, en om die implikasies daarvan vir die Suid-Afrikaanse situasie te belig. Omdat die aangeleentheid van billike keuringsmodelle verband hou met die kwessie van regstellende aksie, word 'n bondige geskiedenis van hierdie kwessie soos dit op personeelkeuring van toepassing is, ook verskaf. Sleutel-uitsprake van die Amerikaanse Hooggeregshof wat betrekking het op hierdie aangeleentheid word ook beskou. Die beperkte toepassing van hierdie billike keuringsmodelle kan toegeskryf word aan die heersende sosio-politieke konteks wat die voorkeurbehandeling van bepaalde groepe voorstaan, maar wat huiwerig is om die besonderhede en perke van sodanige behandeling te spesifiseer.


Author(s):  
Randy E. Barnett

This chapter explains why the consent of the governed cannot justify a duty to obey the laws. The Constitution begins with the statement, “We the People of the United States...do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” The founders declared that “We the People” had exercised their rights and manifested their consent to be ruled by the institutions “constituted” by this document. To understand what constitutional legitimacy requires, the chapter first considers what it means to assert that a constitution is “binding” before making the case that “We the People” is a fiction. More specifically, it challenges the idea, sometimes referred to as “popular sovereignty,” that the Constitution was or is legitimate because it was established by “We the People” or the “consent of the governed.” It argues that the fiction of “We the People” can prove dangerous in practice and can nurture unwarranted criticisms of the Constitution's legitimacy.


1957 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 159-182
Author(s):  
H. Hale Bellot

In order to render my subject manageable, I have excluded from it the literature dealing with legal history, with the general history of political ideas, and with the constitutional and political debates that preceded and accompanied the American Revolution. Each of these is a large subject in itself and would, require for its most summary treatment a separate paper. I limit myself to what has been written during the last fifty years or so about the constitutional history of the Union and of the states in their relation to the Union since the year 1783.


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