The Enlightenment in America, 1720–1825
Editor: Jose R Torre
978 1 85196 936 4: 234x156mm: £350.00/$625.00
The New World held a significant place in the minds of Enlightenment thinkers. However, the American Enlightenment has not been documented by scholars. So far, the body of work on the American Enlightenment has focused almost exclusively on two areas - politics and religion. In contrast scholars have paid little attention to the polyglot efforts of American doctors, scientists, engineers, botanists, poets and agriculturalists. The Enlightenment in America fills this significant gap in the discourse.
This four-volume reset edition recovers the excitement and curiosity of the vibrant intellectual milieu which thrived in the British North American colonies, and later the United States, throughout the long eighteenth century. Sources are carefully selected to represent the manifold nature of the Enlightenment enterprise. They range from opaque scientific treatises, circulated only amongst a small peer group, to lecture syllabi and almanacs which brought new political and social ideas to America’s burgeoning public sphere. The influence of the Scottish Moral Sense Philosophers is also apparent in the subjective, nominal and emotive nature of the material - demonstrating that reason and emotion did not contradict each other in the Enlightenment psyche.
The edition will be essential for those researching and studying American History, Atlantic History, Eighteenth-Century Studies, and the Scottish Enlightenment.
- Most of these rare sources have not been republished before
- A range of sources restore the exciting and polyglot nature of the American Enlightenment
- Full editorial apparatus includes a substantial general introduction, volume introductions, headnotes, endnotes and a consolidated index in the final volume
- All texts are newly reset
Contents
Volume 1: Economy, Finance and Politics
Economy and Finance
Anonymous, New News from Robinson Cruso’s Island, in a Letter to a Friend at Portsmouth (1720); JM, Some Proposals to Benefit the Province (1720); Money the Sinews of Trade: by A Lover of his Country (1731); Manufactory Company, Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, In order to Redress the Distressing Circumstances which the Trade of the Province Labours under for want of a Medium, other Methods having Failed, it is Proposed to set up a Bank on Land Security, no Person to be Admitted but such as Dwell in this Province, and Hath a Real State Therein (1740); Anonymous, ‘Extract from an Address to the Representatives of the People of Virginia’ and ‘Queries and Replies Relative to Paper Money’, American Museum (1787); The Constitution of the Boston Tontine Association (1791); Erick Bollmann, Plan of an Improved System of the Money-Concerns of the Union (1816); Anonymous, ‘Political Economy’, Second American Edition of the New Edinburgh Encyclopaedia (1817); James Swan, An Address to the President, Senate and House of Representatives, of the United States, on The Means of Creating a National Paper by Loan Offices, which shall Replace that of Discredited Banks, and supersede the use of Gold and Silver Coin (1819); Anonymous, 'Review of ‘Essay on Money’', Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1822); Extracts from New York Review and Athenaeum Magazine
Politics
Nathaniel Appleton, Considerations on Slavery. In a letter to a friend (1767); John Allen, The American Alarm or the Bostonian Plea for the Rights and Liberties of the People. Humbly Addressed to the King and Council and to the Constitutional Sons of Liberty in America, by the British Bostonian (1773); New York Committee of Safety, Essays Upon the Making of Salt Petre (1776); The Proposed Plan or Frame of Government for the Commonwealth or State of Pennsylvania: Printed for your Consideration (1776); Vermont Constitution of July 8, 1777; Anonymous, Rudiments of Law and Government, Deduced from the Law of Nature; Particularly Addressed to the People of South Carolina, but Composed on Principles Applicable to all Mankind (1783); An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, Northwest of the River Ohio (1787); An Address of the Democratic Society, of the City of New York, to the Republican Citizens of the United States: which Breaths [sic.] Such a Noble Spirit of True, Rational Liberty, Humanity and Universal Charity and Benevolence; that is Thought Highly Worthy of the Serious Perusal of Every Friend to Impartial Justice and Liberty, in this Country, and is therefore Republished at the Request of a Number of Citizens Here (1794); Extracts from New-Haven Gazette and Connecticut Magazine (1787)
Volume 2: Education, Literature and the Fine arts
Education
William Livingston, Some Serious Thoughts on the Design of Erecting a College in the Province of New-York. Shewing the Eminent Advantages of a Liberal education, more Specifically with Regard to Religion and Politicks (1749); William Smith, Some Thoughts on Education (1752); Timothy Dwight, An Essay on Education; Delivered at the Public Commencement, at Yale College, in New Haven (1772); Anthony Benezet, Some Necessary Remarks on the Education of the Youth on the Country Parts of this and the Neighbouring Governments (1778); The Balloon Almanac (1785); Noah Webster, A Syllabus of Mr. Webster’s lectures on the English Language and Education (1786); The System of Public Education, Adopted by the Town of Boston (1789); Recommendations to the Schoolmasters, by the Committee Appointed to Carry into Execution the System of Public Education, Adopted by the Town of Boston (1789); An Act for the Encouragement of Schools; The Female Advocate, Written by a Lady (1801); Report of the Superintendent of Common Schools (1814)
Literature and the Fine Arts
William Livingston, Philosophical Solitude: The Choice of a Rural Life, A Poem (1747); Charleston Library Society, Rules of the Society for Erecting a Library (1750); George Colman, The Way Worn Traveller …. Composed by Dr. Arnold (1794); Boston Library Society, Catalogue of Books in the Boston Library (1800); R, ‘On Taste’, The Monthly Anthology and Boston Review (1808); Anonymous, ‘Essay on Akenside’s Pleasures of the Imagination’ The Harvard Lyceum (1811); Anonymous, ‘Beauty’, Second American Edition of the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia (1816); Anonymous, ‘Philosophy of Musical Composition’, The Euterpeiad; or Musical Intelligencer, and Ladies Gazette (1823); Extracts from The General Magazine and Impartial Review and The Gentlemen and Ladies Town and Country Magazine
Volume 3: Philosophy and Religion
Philosophy
DeWitt Clinton, An Oration, on Benevolence, Delivered before the Society of Black Friars, in the City of New-York, at their Anniversary Festival (1795); Analyticus, ‘By the celebrated Adam Smith, Sympathy has been Supposed to Exist in a Power of the Imagination …’ and ‘Sympathy’, The Port-Folio (1809); Anonymous, ‘Man Constitutionally Moral’, The Port-Folio (1809); Anonymous, ‘Benevolence’, The Cabinet; a Repository of Polite Literature (1811); Anonymous, ‘Review of ‘Philosophical Essays’ by Dugald Stewart’, Christian Observer (1812); H Holley, ‘On the Pleasure Derived from Witnessing Scenes of Distress’, North American Review (1815); Extracts from The Monthly Anthology and Boston Review
Religion
Ebenezer Gay, Natural Religion, as Distinguish’d from Revealed: a Sermon Preached at the Annual Dudleian-lecture, at Harvard College (1759); Andrew Eliot; A Discourse on Natural Religion Delivered in the Chapel of Harvard College (1771); A Sermon on Natural Religion. By a Natural Man (1771); Anonymous, A Dialogue between A- and B-, on a Subject of the Last Importance (1779); John Leland; The Rights of Conscience Inalienable, and therefore Religious Opinions not Cognizable by Law; or, the High-flying Church-man, Stript of his Legal Robe, Appears a Yaho (1791); Elihu Palmer, The Examiners Examined: Being a Defence of the Age of Reason (1794); Hosea Ballou, Divine Benevolence Further Vindicated (1816)
Volume 4: Science, Technology and the Social Sciences
Science and Technology
Isaac Greenwood, An Experimental Course of Mechanical Philosophy (1726); John Winthrop, A Lecture on Earthquakes; Read in the Chapel of Harvard College (1755); Alexander Garden, ‘The Description of a New Plant’, Essays and Observations, Physical and Literary (1756); Ebenezer Kinnersley; A Course of Experiments, in that Curious and Entertaining Branch of Natural Philosophy, Call’d Electricity; Accompanied with Lectures on the Nature and Properties of the Electric Fire (1765); Arthur Lee, ‘Experiments on the Peruvian Bark’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (1809); William Bryant, ‘Account of an Electrical Eel, or the Torpedo of Surinam’, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society (1786); South-Carolina Society for Promoting and Improving Agriculture, and Other Rural Concerns, Letters and Observations on Agriculture, &c. Addressed to, or Made by the South Carolina Society for Promoting and Improving Agriculture and other Rural Concerns (1788); Benjamin Thompson and Count Rumford, ‘Detailed Accounts, Illustrated by Correct Plans, of various Kitchens, public and private, that have already been constructed on the Author’s Principles and under his immediate Direction’, Essays, Political, Economical, and Philosophical (1870–75); John Lining; A Description of the Yellow Fever, which Prevailed at Charleston, in South Carolina, in the year 1748 (1799); Robert Hare; Memoir on the Supply and Application of the Blowpipe Containing an Account of a New Method of Supplying the Blowpipe either with Common Air, or Oxygen Gas, and also of the Effects of the Intense Heat produced by the Combustion of the Hydrogen and Oxygen Gases (1802); Robert Adrain, ‘Research Concerning the Probabilities of Errors Which Appear in Making Observations’, Analyst (1808); Benjamin Waterhouse, Kine Pox Inoculation, Rules to be Attended to During Vaccination (1809); Jacob Bigelow, American Medical Botany (1817); James Finley, A Description of the Patent Chain Bridge Invented by James Finley, of Fayette County, Pennsylvania: with Data and Remarks Illustrative of the Power, Cost, Durability, and Comparative Superiority of this Mode of Bridging (1810)
Social Sciences
Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society (1792 and 1794); Christopher Colles, The Geographical Ledger and Systemized Atlas (1794); Samuel Williams, ‘The Improvement which the Man of Europe has received in America’, The Rural Magazine or Vermont Repository (1795); Samuel Williams, ‘The American Revolution’, The Rural Magazine or Vermont Repository (1795); Samuel Miller, ‘Sir, I have for some months past, devoted my leisure hours to the collection of materials, with a view to writing a history of New York’ (1798); Samuel Miller, ‘To the Public. The Address of the New York Historical Society’, The American Citizen (1805); Hugh Williamson; A Discourse on the Benefits of Civil History: Delivered Before the New York Historical Society (1810); Benjamin Smith Barton, ‘New Views of the Origins of the Tribes and Nations of America’, The Port Folio (1812)