Mr. Patrick O’Brien Warren Hills HS Washington, NJ

1. Interpretational Frameworks: 3 Ways to interpret the Founding Mr. Patrick O’BrienWarren Hills HS Washington, NJ

2. The Progressive Interpretation • Dominant Interpretative Framework from the late 19th century to the beginning of the Cold War • Central Scholars and Key Works • Charles Beard, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution (1913)

3. Methodological Assumptions (primarily true of the early Progressives • Economic interests are fundamental or primordial. • Thus, ideas that humans have are surface reflections or justifications for underlying economic motives. • Thus, scholars/historians must penetrate the pageant of ideas to discover the reality of economic motives below the surface. • When view this way, American history is best understood as a series of struggles between agrarian and commercial classes.

4. Major Substantive Teachings The American Revolution was fought for economic reasons, not on the basis of principles such as “No taxation without representation.” The Revolution involved both an international struggle with Great Britain over home rule and a social struggle within the colonies for who should rule at home. Thus, this is known as a “conflict interpretation” of the founding.

5. Major Substantive Teachings The period in which the Articles of Confederation governed America was not a period of crisis or a “critical period.” It was a time of prosperity, growth, and many unrecognized accomplishments.

6. Major Substantive Teachings The Framers of the Constitution were creditors and members of the commercial classes who wrote and ratified the Constitution that they did to advance and protect their economic interests. The Constitution was an economic document – i.e. protecting the moneyed interests of its authors.

7. Major Substantive Teachings The Constitution was an anti-democratic document. The Constitution was an economic document – i.e. protecting the moneyed interests of its authors.

8. Major Substantive Teachings The Progressive believes that the real Revolution was from 1776 to 1787. (i.e. the actual war, but all the way to the end of the Articles of Confederation and the transition to the Constitution)

9. Major Substantive Teachings The Progressives see too many contradictions in the rhetoric of the Founders (whether it’s liberal or republican):

10. The Classic Liberal Interpretation • Dominant Interpretative Paradigm during the Cold War and Very Influential Today • Central Scholars and Key Works • Forrest McDonald, Novos Ordo Seclorum(1985)

11. Methodological Assumptions Most proponents of the liberal interpretation argue that ideas matter, and they can motivate humans to act. Historians who subscribe to the liberal interpretation believe that the rhetoric of the founders was real; the founders were primarily motivated by their system of beliefs, rather than being consciously or subconsciously motivated by economic self-interest.

12. John Locke Two Treatises of Government

13. Purpose of Government to a classical liberal The protection of inalienable rights and private property is the principle goal of government. The government should encourage self interest (since we are not virtuous enough to organize a government around that notion.

14. Avoid the Passions! To a proponent of this framework, the founders believed that corruption should not be the biggest concern. Passion is what should be of concern. In other words, people kill each other for idealistic reasons driven by emotion (e.g. in the name of religion --this is passion). This directly contradicts what the republicans believe.

15. The Classical Republican Interpretation • Developed in the late 1960s and dominant in the 1970s and 1980s • Central Scholars and Key Works • Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1968)

16. Methodological Assumptions ( Like the liberal historians, they believe that humans can be motivated by ideas (once they become embedded in culture), so they reject the Progressive historian claim that the rhetoric of the founders were nothing more than surface justifications. Proponents of the republican interpretation are students of American political culture, not American political theory.

17. Major Substantive Teachings Proponents of the Republican interpretation began by arguing that the liberal interpretation was elitist, anachronistic, and ahistorical. The liberal interpretation was elitist, proponents of the republican interpretation argued, because it examined only a few documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and The Federalist Papers. Other documents are equally good, if not better, expressions of the American mind. If these documents are examined, a different understanding of the American Founding emerges. Roman Centurion (riding a chariot) wearing a wristwatch in the film Ben-Hur.

18. Major Substantive Teachings • The American Revolution was born of a fear of corruption in the British ministry, not so much a concern with violations of the inalienable rights of the people. • Positive Liberty through Participation in the Public Realm – The American Revolutionaries, according to the republican interpretation, were also concerned with promoting and protecting “liberty.” • But they understood liberty not simply as the protection of rights. They also believed that liberty involved political participation which men required to become fully human.