The Natural Rights Republic: Studies in the Foundation of the American Political Tradition by Michael P. Zuckert

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This was the object of the Declaration of Independence...to place before mankind the common sense of the subject...neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind. -- Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson's words still resonate in the American conscience--life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness--but the "common sense of the subject" is not so clear at the end of the twentieth century. In The Natural Rights Republic, renowned political theorist Michael Zuckert counters contemporary confusion by offering an insightful study of the concept that dominated the mindset of the founding generation, the natural rights philosophy.

Zuckert begins by examining this philosophy as expressed in sources such as the Declaration of Independence. After providing an overall reading of the natural rights philosophy, Zuckert offers a new treatment of the theme of self-evident truths and further plumbs the depths of the natural rights philosophy by examining Jefferson's Notes on Virginia and related writings.

Zuckert makes the case for the primacy of natural rights liberalism as a key to understanding the American founding. He demonstrates that what was truly remarkable about the establishment and the subsequent character of American political culture was the way in which the founding generation created a workable combination of various forms of republicanism, the Whig ancient constitution, and Protestant political theology. Zuckert even goes so far as to suggest that the singularity of the American political tradition owes much of its identity to this unique combination.

By emphasizing the political philosophy, as opposed to the political science, underlying the founding of the United States, Zuckert breaks new ground in the field of American political thought and sends the contemporary debates about redefining America back to their ideological roots.