North America
America's Forgotten Founder: John Dickinson and the American Revolution
By , St. Mary's College of Maryland (February 2007)
Sections: North America
Subjects: Religion, History, Political History, Intellectual History.
Places: Americas, Northern America.
Periods: 1000 - 1999, 1700-1799.
Key Topics: rights, resistance, popular belief, war, protests, political theory, charters, peace.
Abstract
Although John Dickinson was one of the central figures in the American Founding, he is virtually unknown by scholars. This article makes a case for his importance and claims that the reason for his absence from the scholarship is the confusion surrounding his political thought and action. Until now, no work has explained the apparent contradiction of his vigorous advocacy of American rights, his refusal to support the Declaration of Independence, and his subsequent military service on the side of the Rebels. The argument here is that the seeming contradictions resolve and Dickinson's position in the Revolution is consistent and comprehendible when situated in the tradition of Quaker political thought.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2007.00424.x
This article abstract has been viewed 7866 times.
Top 5 related articles
-
The Long Peace in Pennsylvania
By , Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA
(Vol. 2, September 2004)
History Compass -
The Civil Rights Movement and the Presidency in the Hot Years of the Cold War: A Historical and Historiographical Assessment
By , University of Texas of the Permian Basin
(Vol. 5, November 2007)
History Compass -
Thinking About the Civil Rights Movement in a Conservative Age
By , California State University, Los Angeles
(Vol. 3, March 2005)
History Compass -
The Native Spiritual Economy and the Yamasee War
By , Valdosta State University
(Vol. 4, October 2006)
History Compass -
What Historians Talk About When They Talk About Suicide: The View from Early Modern British North America
By , California State University, Fullerton
(Vol. 5, February 2007)
History Compass
Top 5 Related Blackwell Reference Chapters
Anti-Vietnam War movement, Britain
In the 1960s, opposition to the Vietnam War provided a focus for political protest and cultural rebellion ...
By Sylvia Ellis
From The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest
Anti-Vietnam War movement, United States
The first protests in the United States against the Vietnam War were small and little noticed. Yet by ...
By Rick Clapton
From The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest
War and Peace in the Global Community, 1989 – 2001
At the end of the Cold War in Europe, a new era in world history began. When the Berlin Wall opened on ...
By Lloyd E. Ambrosius
Revolution, dialectics of
since the mid-nineteenth century, numerous political theorists and activists have considered dialectical ...
By Peter Hudis
From The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest
Breaking Bread: Peace and War
On December 24, 1914, the first Christmas Eve of World War I, peace broke out spontaneously, up and down ...
By Gerald W. Schlabach