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Item#: C5538
ISBN#: 0765806673
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JOHN C. CALHOUN: the ultimate in political in correctness
Savor every word of this rich collection -- the only one of its kind
The Essential Calhoun
by Clyde N. Wilson (Editor)
For the first time," writes Russell Kirk in his Foreword to The Essential Calhoun, "it is now possible to apprehend Calhoun and to seriously examine his thought within the compass of a single volume. This is an important accomplishment, for Calhoun's political thought is more original and more closely reasoned than that of any other American statesman."
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Adds M. E. Bradford of Calhoun: "His politics with respect to banking and currency, foreign policy and trade, taxation, frugality, nationalism, public virtue, the role of government and the common good goes back to his original Jeffersonianism, his commitment to the republican tradition." Calhoun's insights were remarkably prescient, as this volume attests. Anthony Harrigan gives us one example, in Humanitas, commenting on Calhoun's "Disquisition on Government":
"He stresses that government has 'a strong tendency to disorder and abuse of its power.' He exposes a major fallacy which has become a part of modern thinking, namely, that the right of suffrage is sufficient to ensure constitutional government. He envisions the struggle for power and domination in America and the conflict between different interest groups. In words that might come from a late twentieth-century analyst, he describes how the community will be divided into 'two great classes: one consisting of those who, in reality, pay the taxes, and, of course, bare exclusively the burden of supporting the government, and the other who are the recipients of their proceeds.' Before the middle of the nineteenth century, he foresaw the transfer-payment system of our time.
"Calhoun's central argument was that liberty cannot endure if the numerical or absolute majority is to prevail at all times, if sufficient checks on majority will are not built into the system. He ... [warned] that 'to confound the numerical majority with the people' is 'a radical error.'"
Not surprisingly, "free trade, low duties, no debt, separation from banks, economy, retrenchment, and strict adherence to the Constitution" became the slogans of Calhoun's last presidential campaign in 1843. Clyde N. Wilson captures Calhoun's thoughts on all these topics and more with this broad selection of the statesman's speeches and writings taken from his entire 40-year career.
"An aura of prophecy"
"A marvelous collection, put together by the foremost authority on John C. Calhoun, and an absolutely essential book for the study of the great South Carolina statesman and political philosopher! Professor Wilson's extraordinary introduction and selection of materials reflect his vast knowledge of the history of the scholarship on Calhoun."--M. E. Bradford
"The broadest and most widely ranging selection of Calhoun's writings that has ever appeared between two covers. Calhoun is somehow just as we thought he was, only more so, more purposefully so, more challengingly so -- and, hence, more than we generally thought he was. The Essential Calhoun stands alone as a one-volume collection."--Guy Stanton Brown, Perspectives in Political Science
"Clyde Wilson has produced a book that displays the full range and depth of Calhoun's insightful commentary on issues of enduring relevance to the United States and its people. Calhoun's words now have an aura of prophecy about them. I salute Clyde Wilson in his efforts to rehabilitate the essential Calhoun, for he has shown how much Calhoun still has to teach us and how much we yet have to learn."--Mark Malvasi, Chronicles
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