Hume’s Reception in Early America : Expanded Edition
Author(s):
Hume's Reception in Early America: Expanded Edition brings together the original American responses to one of Britain's greatest men of letters, David Hume. Now available as a single volume paperback, this new edition includes updated further readings suggestions and dozens of additional primary sources gathered together in a completely new concluding section.
From complete pamphlets and booklets, to poems, reviews, and letters, to extracts from newspapers, religious magazines and literary and political journals, this book's contents come from a wide variety of sources published in colonial America and the early United States between 1758 and 1850. As well as classics by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, it contains scores of unknown and hard-to-locate items, many of which have not been reprinted since their original publication. These responses are divided into four parts covering Hume's Essays; his Philosophical Writings; his History of England; and his Character and Death. Each of those parts has a separate introductory essay, and every selection is introduced by a short headnote that sets the piece in its historical context and provides bibliographical references.
Packed with new insights into Hume and American thought and culture, Hume's Reception in Early America reveals the relevance and impact of Hume on American political, philosophical, historical, religious, and aesthetic debates.
Review(s):
“This work first appeared in 2002, in a costly two-volume set. This expanded paperback edition is welcome, and it has the added benefit of including an addendum with 38 new primary sources (and some editorial corrections to the earlier edition). Otherwise, the paperback is much like the cloth: it demonstrates Scottish philosopher David Hume’s profound influence on both early US political leaders (Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, et al.) and early politics in the US. Among Hume's influential essays is “Of the Liberty of the Press,” in which he argues that a free press is essential to a republic. First published in 1742, that essay was adapted for the American context and circulated in outlets such as the South-Carolina Gazette and the Virginia Gazette, and it was, as Spencer (history, Brock Univ., Canada) observes in chapter 4, “used to help buttress the Revolutionary cause.” In another essay, “Of National Characters,” Hume presents his opinion of blacks as inferior, a view that generated much controversy especially given slavery in the US. Those who own the original two-volume set can probably pass on this single-volume paperback edition, but Spencer's collection remains a valuable resource for those interested in early American philosophy and politics. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." - CHOICE
ISBN: 9781474269018