Synopses & Reviews
By investigating eighteenth-century social and economic thoughtan intellectual world with its own vocabulary, concepts, and assumptionsDrew McCoy smoothly integrates the history of ideas and the history of public policy in the Jeffersonian era. The book was originally published by UNC Press in 1980.
Review
[Enlarges] our understanding of early American history and gives us a perspective from which to see the deficiencies of the republic today.
Virginia Quarterly Review
Review
Filled with insights that a summary cannot begin to mention and argued with uncommon force, economy, and grace.
Journal of American History
Review
An imaginative and well-written book that will be necessary reading for all American historians concerned with the post-Revolutionary period.
Journal of Economic History
Review
The Elusive Republic offers insights into the complex relationships between ideology and social change, between tradition and modernity.
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
About the Author
Drew R. McCoy, Jacob and Frances Hiatt Professor of History at Clark University, is author of The Last of the Fathers: James Madison and the Republican Legacy.