Synopses & Reviews
Contention, argument, and power have always been the tradition in American political talk. Any country that began in a revolution was bound to have this history. But the language of argument uses particular words with particular, sometimes shifting, meanings and to know what they are and what they meant over time is a critical contribution to political history. It is true that politicians may act as though they are part of no particular ideological tradition, but history shows that, more often than not, they use an understood meaning to enhance their actions. As Daniel Rodgers shows in this book, rhetoric has consequences.
Review
"Contested Truths is the best synthesis and interpretation of American political ideas since the work of [Richard] Hofstadter...Rogers has made a major contribution to intellectual history."
--Tom Bender"Daniel Rodgers offers a vivid retelling of the American political experience as a contest of words and a contest for ideas by a people to whom language had become an indispensable tool of revolution and statecraft."
--Benjamin Barber, Rutgers University"An absolutely first-rate intellectual treat. I cannot remember when I so enjoyed a book about ideas, history, and politics. A must read for anyone interested in how and why Americans have used and transformed the language of politics for 200 years."
--Isaac Kramnick, Cornell UniversityReview
Contested Truths is the best synthesis and interpretation of American political ideas since the work of [Richard] Hofstadter...Rogers has made a major contribution to intellectual history. Tom Bender
Review
Daniel Rodgers offers a vivid retelling of the American political experience as a contest of words and a contest for ideas by a people to whom language had become an indispensable tool of revolution and statecraft. Benjamin Barber, Rutgers University
Review
An absolutely first-rate intellectual treat. I cannot remember when I so enjoyed a book about ideas, history, and politics. A must read for anyone interested in how and why Americans have used and transformed the language of politics for 200 years. Isaac Kramnick, Cornell University
About the Author
Daniel T. Rodgers is Henry Charles Lea Professor of History at Princeton University.
Princeton University
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
Words and Acts
Tools and Paradigms
Keywords
UTILITY
The Puzzling Failure of Jeremy Bentham
Antimetaphysics
Influence
Quicksands of Expediency
The Frame of Political Argument
NATURAL RIGHTS
Declarations
A State of Nature
Delimiting Rights
Certain Political Rituals
Revival
THE PEOPLE
Mechanics and Majorities
Popular Sovereignty
Revolutionary Assemblies
The Identity of the People
GOVERNMENT
The Rhetoric of Counterrevolution
A Christian Party In Politics
Property Reconsidered
Human Rights and Sacred Obligations
The People Deposed
THE STATE
Professional Political Science
Constitutional Law
The Grammar of a Profession
Webs of Contradiction
The Uses of an Abstraction
INTERESTS
Highbrow and Lowbrow
The Common Good
Utilitarianism Redivivus
Empirical Political Science
The Disappearing Public
The Rhetoric of Realism
EPILOGUE
The Conflations of Freedom
Rights without Retrospection
Public Talk
Notes
Guide To Further Reading
Index