American Interpretations of Natural Law: A Study in the History of Political Thought

by Benjamin Fletcher Wright

Overview

This book illustrates the deep roots of natural law doctrines in America's political culture. Originally published in 1931, the volume shows that American interpretations of natural law go to the philosophical heart of the American regime. The Declaration of Independence is the preeminent example of natural law in American political thought it is the self-evident truth of American society.

Benjamin Wright proposes that the decline of natural law as a guiding factor in American political behaviour is inevitable as America's democracy matures and broadens. What Wright also chronicled, inadvertently, was how the progressive critique of natural law has opened a rift between and among some of the ruling elites and large numbers of Americans who continue to accept it. Progressive elites who reject natural law do not share the same political culture as many of their fellow citizens.

Wright's work is important because, as Leo Strauss and others have observed, the decline of natural law is a development that has not had a happy ending in other societies in the twentieth century. There is no reason to believe it will be different in the United States.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138518766
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/02/2017
Series:	Library of Liberal Thought
Pages:	274
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction to the Transaction Edition, Sidney A. Pearson, Jr.

Preface

I introduction

II Divine Law in Early New England

III Colonial Importations

IV The Revolution

V The First Constitutions

VI The Framing and Ratification of the Federal Constitution

VII Controversial and Non-Systematic Theory since 1789
General Tendencies
Debates in the State Constitutional Conventions
The Slavery Controversy

VIII Systematic Studies of Politics

IX Constitutional Interpretation

X Critics and Defenders

XI Conclusion

Index

Editorial Reviews

"Professor Wright has given us a highly useful volume, compendious, orderly, and clearly written. . . . Professor Wright’s volume is commendably comprehensive." —Edward S. Corwin, Columbia Law Review "[This book’s] historical survey is so complete and authentic that a study of that sort will not have to be made again. And no one is more competent than Professor Wright to deal with any question concerning the present theoretical and practical significance of the concept of natural law in America." —Francis W. Coker, The American Political Science Review "Professor Wright moves among his authors with very great skill and with a due sense of their relative importance and interest, and he has notably illustrated a leading motive in American political theory and history. . . . A solid piece of work." —D. W. Brogan, The New England Quarterly "Such books as Mr. Wright’s are of much value. He has brought together diligently, completely, and intelligently the materials for an understanding of natural law in American political thought. . . . An important undertaking well carried out." —Roscoe Pound, Harvard Law Review

From the Publisher