History of American Political Thought

History of American Political Thought is a feast for the mind, a first-rate collection of essays by first-rate scholars. Reaching wide and deep, it brims with insights about the philosophers, poets, novelists, activists, jurists, and political leaders who contributed to the intellectual life of this nation. Rigorous yet readable, this book is bound to become a standard reference about the ideas that undergird American politics. It will be a valuable resource for students and scholars, indeed for anyone with a serious interest in serious political questions. -- John J. Pitney Jr., Roy P. Crocker Professor of American Politics, Claremont McKenna College
Featuring erudite essays of the highest order, this superb collection highlights the richness of the American political tradition, with leading scholars engaging America’s greatest and most important thinkers, jurists, and statesmen. Frost and Sikkenga’s History of American Political Thought is by far the best and most comprehensive volume of its kind, and its updated 2nd edition will no doubt continue to an essential resource for students and researchers. -- Patrick Cain, Lakehead University
This comprehensively encyclopedic set of lively and insightful essays, having become a minor classic over the past fifteen years, is here updated and enlarged in ways that make it an even more essential supplement to all teaching and study of the whole of American political thought. -- Thomas L. Pangle, University of Texas at Austin
This multi authored volume, edited by Frost and Sikkenga, is ‘the best fit’ for how I prefer to approach the study of American political thought in an academic course. In their essays, each author expounds the philosophical orientations and elucidates the main tenets of their notable subject with thoroughly proficient analyses that read much like a high quality narrative. The reader benefits by being shown the important connections between the political ideas of numerous significant figures and the various “isms” that cross the spectrum of political ideology. This new edition gives added value by including extra chapters on the political philosophy of presidents Lyndon Baines Johnson, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama. -- Troy Goodale, Tusculum University
This excellent collection has always been the most useful and reliable guide to American political thinkers. Its impressive range has been extended further with new entries on Walt Whitman, LBJ, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. In addition, every chapter of the original edition whose author is still alive has been revised and updated, though all of high quality to begin with. The volume has thus succeeded admirably at rendering its first edition obsolete. What were the visions of America that informed not only the Washingtons and Lincolns but the Elizabeth Cady Stantons and William Graham Sumners? Now you’ll know. -- Clifford Orwin, University of Toronto
Bryan-Paul Frost and Jeffrey Sikkenga are to be congratulated for putting together the most thoughtful, comprehensive, and accessible collection on American political thought ever assembled. This volume is a significant improvement over an already wonderful first edition. One learns what the most serious and gifted American Founders, statesmen, writers, jurists, diplomats, publicists, and citizens have thought about what it means to be an American. Here one confronts unity and diversity and the great debates about liberty and equality, religion and politics, the role of the courts, as well as America's role in the world. A feast for reflective citizens and inquiring scholars alike. -- Daniel J. Mahoney, Assumption College