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American Political Ideas Viewed from the Standpoint of Universal History By: John Fiske (1842-1901) |
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VIEWED FROM THE STANDPOINT OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY Three Lectures DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN IN MAY 1880 BY JOHN FISKE Voici un fait entièrement nouveau dans le monde, et dont l'imagination
elle même ne saurait saisir la portée.
TOCQUEVILLE
TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS NOBLEST OF MEN AND DEAREST OF FRIENDS WHOSE UNSELFISH AND UNTIRING WORK IN EDUCATING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN
THE PRINCIPLES OF SOUND PHILOSOPHY DESERVES THE GRATITUDE OF ALL MEN I dedicate this Book
PREFACE.
In the spring of 1879 I gave at the Old South Meeting house in Boston a
course of lectures on the discovery and colonization of America, and
presently, through the kindness of my friend Professor Huxley, the
course was repeated at University College in London. The lectures there
were attended by very large audiences, and awakened such an interest in
American history that I was invited to return to England in the
following year and treat of some of the philosophical aspects of my
subject in a course of lectures at the Royal Institution. In the three lectures which were written in response to this invitation,
and which are now published in this little volume, I have endeavoured to
illustrate some of the fundamental ideas of American politics by setting
forth their relations to the general history of mankind. It is
impossible thoroughly to grasp the meaning of any group of facts, in any
department of study, until we have duly compared them with allied groups
of facts; and the political history of the American people can be
rightly understood only when it is studied in connection with that
general process of political evolution which has been going on from the
earliest times, and of which it is itself one of the most important and
remarkable phases. The government of the United States is not the result
of special creation, but of evolution. As the town meetings of New
England are lineally descended from the village assemblies of the early
Aryans; as our huge federal union was long ago foreshadowed in the
little leagues of Greek cities and Swiss cantons; so the great political
problem which we are (thus far successfully) solving is the very same
problem upon which all civilized peoples have been working ever since
civilization began. How to insure peaceful concerted action throughout
the Whole, without infringing upon local and individual freedom in the
Parts, this has ever been the chief aim of civilization, viewed on its
political side; and we rate the failure or success of nations
politically according to their failure or success in attaining this
supreme end. When thus considered in the light of the comparative
method, our American history acquires added dignity and interest, and a
broad and rational basis is secured for the detailed treatment of
political questions. When viewed in this light, moreover, not only does American history
become especially interesting to Englishmen, but English history is
clothed with fresh interest for Americans. Mr. Freeman has done well in
insisting upon the fact that the history of the English people does not
begin with the Norman Conquest. In the deepest and widest sense, our
American history does not begin with the Declaration of Independence, or
even with the settlements of Jamestown and Plymouth; but it descends in
unbroken continuity from the days when stout Arminius in the forests of
northern Germany successfully defied the might of imperial Rome. In a
more restricted sense, the statesmanship of Washington and Lincoln
appears in the noblest light when regarded as the fruition of the
various work of De Montfort and Cromwell and Chatham. The good fight
begun at Lewes and continued at Naseby and Quebec was fitly crowned at
Yorktown and at Appomattox. When we duly realize this, and further come
to see how the two great branches of the English race have the common
mission of establishing throughout the larger part of the earth a higher
civilization and more permanent political order than any that has gone
before, we shall the better understand the true significance of the
history which English speaking men have so magnificently wrought out
upon American soil... Continue reading book >>
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