))
George Harrell: These Un-United States: National Myth and Political Reality in the American Founding
Manage episode 433901512 series 3592743
Content provided by The George Buchanan Forum. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by The George Buchanan Forum or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://ppacc.player.fm/legal.
Calls for a resurgence of American nationalism are often defended by a supposed historical American national identity that emerged either with the Declaration of Independence in 1776 or with the adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1789. And indeed, throughout the 1770s, 80s and 90s, American politicians often argued for separation from Britain, and American union, due to their claims of a national identity. However, the idea of American external differences and internal similarities was more of a useful political fiction than a reality. And for years after the emergence of the United States, an American national identity would elude the founding generation as they denounced one another as traitors to the Republic, attempted to form alliances with foreign enemies, and discussed secession from the government that they had helped to create.
George Buchanan was a late 16th-century Scottish Reformed thinker who used Scripture, history, and the natural law to argue for the restraint of civil rulers, the resistance to tyranny, and the freedom of Christian citizens. Like its namesake, the George Buchanan Forum is a community of liberty-minded Christians seeking to integrate theology, political theory, economics, and history.
38 episodes
Share
