Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America

By Thomas G. West

Book Overview

According to the conventional wisdom of our time, our nation's Founders were guilty of racism, sexism, and elitism. They were hypocrites who failed to live up to their own enlightened principles. The fact that Washington and Jefferson held slaves is taken as definitive proof that they never really believed "all men are created equal." It is also widely asserted that women, even after the American Revolution, enjoyed virtually no rights, and that the poor and property-less were denied the basic tenets of democratic participation. Observing that our understanding of the Founders so profoundly influences our opinion of contemporary America, Thomas West demonstrates why the Founders were indeed sincere in their belief of universal human rights and in their commitment to democracy. More importantly, this landmark book explains why their views, and particularly the constitutional order they created, are still worthy of our highest respect. In a straightforward style, West debunks numerous widely held myths about the Founders' political thought. He contrasts the Founders' ideas of liberty and equality with today's, concluding that contemporary notions of liberalism bear almost no resemblance to the concepts originally articulated by the Founders. This controversial, convincing, and highly original book is important reading for everyone concerned about the origins, present, and future of the American experiment in self government.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0847685160
• ISBN13: 9780847685165
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Quick and surprising read full of facts few know

Thomas West assembles a compact read in "Vindicating the Founders" that spiritedly challenges the modern critique of America's Founders. "Vindicating" shows that post-revolutionary America was, without a doubt, a shining example to the rest of the world of a republican democracy, with thoroughly advanced notions of voting rights, property rights, and welfare. Rejecting those who criticize the Founders for what they didn't do, namely, abolish slavery, Mr. West shows that the philosophy embodied in the Declaration of Independence practically animated the Founders actions, making early America a model of freedom and laying the course for the ultimate extinction of slavery. "Vindicating" is not meant to be an exhaustive treatise on early America. It aims to debunk modern myths that denigrate the Founders, and, in this, "Vindicating" is more than up to the task. Reviewer: Chuck DeVore is a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010, a California State Assemblyman, he served as a Special Assistant for Foreign Affairs in the Department of Defense from 1986 to 1988, retired from the Army National Guard as a lieutenant colonel, and is the co-author of "China Attacks."

A Must-Read for Any Critic of the Founders

No one should criticize or condemn the Founding Fathers of this country until they've read either this book by Tom West or every one of the speeches, letters, and other writings of the Founders for themselves. One of the problems in today's country is that we have a bunch of self-appointed PC historians that regularly badger the Founders for falling short of today's enlightened sense of justice without taking the time to read what the Founders had to say on these issues themselves. West lets the Founders speak for themselves by documenting both their writings and their actions. Truly, a valuable contribution to the study of American history. I hope to see more from Tom West.

An Antidote for Common Anachronisms

Did the Founders think that blacks were morally and intellectually inferior? Yes, most of them did. Did the Founders think that blacks were still fully entitled to the unalienable rights of man? Yes, most of them did. Were intellectual and social debates as multifaceted then as now. You bet. That's why it is possible to find facts and quotations to support a variety of assaults on the Founders, based on selective evidence and anachronistic, collectivist values. This book looks at the people and the circumstances of the founding period in light of the individualist values of the time and the social conflicts and necessities those people had to reconcile. The mere fact that they created a nation more free and more fair than any that had gone before should make us doubt the malign, revisionist, politically-correct histories we've seen in recent decades. This book is not only very good, but much needed.

The first word of the subtitle is RACE!

I had a hearty laugh after I read the review of pistos@pacbell.net, who claims that West underplays the racism that was evident in the thoughts of the Founders! Has this person even READ the book, or just the chapter headings? The major point of the book is to vindicate the founders, and one major area of vindication is in the area of race. Where many erroneously claim the Founders were racists, West sets out to disprove this allegation, and does so meticulously. For the last poster to say he agrees with most of West's conclusions but disagrees with his treatment of Race is like saying one agrees with most of Christianity, just not that bit about Jesus!

Highly Recommended!

Thomas G. West does a masterful job of explaining the commonly held political and social beliefs of the Founders, all the while he debunks numerous myths from both the Left and the Right. West, a disciple of Leo Strauss and Harry Jaffa, stays within the tradition of natural law theory as currently advocated by the Clairemont Institute as he explains the true meanings of the words found in the Declaration and the Constitution. Each chapter begins with quotations from various historians or influential thinkers who have misinterpreted their meanings, then West gathers quotes from the Founders within context and gives the reader the proper meaning. This is then followed by what might be called application and social critique, telling us things that may surprise us. Although I think he underplays the racism that was evident in their thoughts and behaviors, I believe he is correct in most of his conclusions and I learned quite a bit. It could be a conservative compliment to *Lies My Teacher Told Me* by James Loewen. For those who want to gather the true meaning of the what the USA was founded on, they could get no better book than this.