THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC
Its Constitution, Tendencies, and Destiny
By Orestes Brownson
with a new Introduction by Peter Augustine Lawler
Vol. I of Orestes Brownson: Works in Political Philosophy, Gregory Butler, series editor
List Item No. 329
ISBN: 1-882926-86-2 (cloth)
450 pages
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List Item No. 329a
ISBN: 1-882926-92-7 (paper)
450 pages
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Orestes Brownson's The American Republic was first published in 1865. The nation had just survived a Civil War that threatened to destroy the very life of a country less than one hundred years old. In this magisterial work, Brownson emerges as a political realist as well as a theorist. With brilliant and sobering thought Brownson presents his views on the nature, necessity, extent, authority, origin, and constitution of government in the light of the problems caused by secession and reconstruction. He urges his countrymen to consider their nation's role and impact on world history as he outlines for them the political and religious destiny of a government with "no prototype in any prior constitution."
If the Federalist Papers of Madison, Hamilton, and Jay are among the best philosophical expositions of America's form of government at its founding, The American Republic of Brownson ought to enjoy a similar evaluation as a philosophical exposition of the union restored after the Civil War. This assessment is strongly reinforced by a major new evaluation of Brownson's enduring genius—and continuing relevance—by noted political philosopher Peter Augustine Lawler. Lawler's introduction constitutes a mini-book in itself, and will enrich the encounter of modern readers with the achievement of Orestes Brownson, a highly original American mind.
What They're Saying...
"The challenge for conservatives is to locate a conservative tradition while carefully distinguishing it from the unseemly causes with which it has often been associated. In taking it up, no other thinker has succeeded as admirably as has Brownson; he deserves to be freshly remembered."
—National Review
"This excellent new edition of Orestes Brownson's The American Republic, with a lengthy introduction by Professor Lawler, is a truly auspicious event in these troubled times."
—R. A. Herrera, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Seton Hall University
"The American Republic is Brownson's most comprehensive work of political reflection."
—First Things
"It is a truth almost universally acknowledged that with his book Democracy in America Alexis de Tocqueville wrote both the best book on America and the best book on democracy outright. It is a truth less universally acknowledged (in fact it is hardly recognized at all) that with his book The American Republic Orestes Brownson wrote the second best book on America—and democracy. All praise and honor, then, to ISI Books for reprinting this magnificent defense—and critique—of American democracy, and to Peter Augustine Lawler for his lucid explanation why this nineteenth-century convert from Unitarianism to Catholicism was, along with Abraham Lincoln, the best critic of American democracy and culture our nation has ever produced, and with Lincoln the only American whose analysis can bear company with Tocqueville's."
—Edward T. Oakes, S.J., The Margaret and Chester Paluch Professor of Theology, University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary
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