John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic

New
Paperback
2007
$34.38

Jeffry H. Morrison offers readers the first comprehensive look at the political thought and career of John Witherspoon--a Scottish Presbyterian minister and one of America's most influential and overlooked founding fathers. Witherspoon was an active member of the Continental Congress and was the only clergyman both to sign the Declaration of Independence and to ratify the federal Constitution. During his tenure as president of the College of New Jersey at Princeton, Witherspoon became a mentor to James Madison and influenced many leaders and thinkers of the founding period. He was uniquely positioned at the crossroads of politics, religion, and education during the crucial first decades of the new republic. Morrison locates Witherspoon in the context of early American political thought and charts the various influences on his thinking. This impressive work of scholarship offers a broad treatment of Witherspoon's constitutionalism, including his contributions to the mediating institutions of religion and education, and to political institutions from the colonial through the early federal periods. This book will be appreciated by anyone with an interest in American political history and thought and in the relation of religion to American politics.

Synopsis

Jeffry H. Morrison offers readers the first comprehensive look at the political thought and career of John Witherspoon--a Scottish Presbyterian minister and one of America's most influential and overlooked founding fathers. Witherspoon was an active member of the Continental Congress and was the only clergyman both to sign the Declaration of Independence and to ratify the federal Constitution. During his tenure as president of the College of New Jersey at Princeton, Witherspoon became a mentor to James Madison and influenced many leaders and thinkers of the founding period. He was uniquely positioned at the crossroads of politics, religion, and education during the crucial first decades of the new republic. Morrison locates Witherspoon in the context of early American political thought and charts the various influences on his thinking. This impressive work of scholarship offers a broad treatment of Witherspoon's constitutionalism, including his contributions to the mediating institutions of religion and education, and to political institutions from the colonial through the early federal periods. This book will be appreciated by anyone with an interest in American political history and thought and in the relation of religion to American politics.

$34.38

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 240
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
Published: 15 Oct 2007
ISBN 10: 0268035083
ISBN 13: 9780268035082

Media Reviews

Jeffry Morrison's brief, excellent new book, John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic, both testifies to and partly redresses the neglect Witherspoon has suffered. Witherspoon was a formidable intellectual and political leader whose role in the affairs of colonial and early republican America deserves wider recognition. - The New Criterion Professor Morrison's book fills a gap in American political history. It is especially revealing of eighteenth-century views on the interrelationships between education, religion, and society. Morrison presents new insights into the early American understanding of balancing faith, government, and society. It will change our conceptions of this period and provide fresh perspectives on contemporary problems. Everyone interested in the American Founding era is indebted to Morrison for this illuminating book. - Garrett Ward Sheldon, University of Virginia's College at Wise Jeffry Morrison's fine intellectual biography of the man [is] the first extended study of Witherspoon's political thought ever written.... Morrison focuses his attention on Witherspoon's thinking, especially his political thought, so much of it rooted in his Presbyterian convictions.... Morrison makes a strong, and entirely convincing, case for Witherspoon's neglected importance. - The Weekly Standard

Author Bio

Jeffry H. Morrison is Associate Professor of Government at Regent University and a faculty member at the federal government's James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation in Washington, D.C. He is co-editor of The Founders on God and Government.