A Disquisition on Government

Name: A Disquisition on Government
Brand: Tantor Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: John C. Calhoun
ISBN: 9781452675787

Author: John C. Calhoun

Narrator: Mel Foster

Unabridged: 3 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/26/2011

Categories: Nonfiction, Political Science, History & Theory

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

Written between 1843 and 1848, John C. Calhoun's A Disquisition on Government addresses such diverse issues as states' rights and nullification, slavery, and the growth of the federal judicial power. Articulating Calhoun's perspective on government as seen from the point of view of a permanent minority (the South), A Disquisition on Government relies on the doctrine of a concurrent majority. Calhoun's concurrent majority captures the idea that because unchecked majority rule can lead to tyranny over minority interests, minority groups should possess veto power government actions that affect them. Although Calhoun primarily intended this doctrine as a justification for slavery, the broader idea of a concurrent majority as a protection for minority rights has since become a pillar of American political thought.

About John C. Calhoun

John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) was a leading politician and political theorist during the first half of the nineteenth century. He served as the seventh vice president of the United States under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson; a U.S. Senator from South Carolina; the sixteenth U.S. Secretary of State under President John Tyler; and the 10th U.S. Secretary of War under President James Monroe. Along with A Disquisition on Government, he is the author of Discourse on the Constitution and Government of the United States.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jon on December 13, 2023

With all the talk of eliminating the Electoral College this work has new life...“They who fall into these errors regard the restrictions which organism imposes on the will of the numerical majority as restrictions on the will of the people, and, therefore, as not only useless, but wrongful and misch......more

Goodreads review by Allen on March 19, 2013

The prejudice against Calhoun is held only by those who refuse to dialogue with him. This text is a beacon of light in the dark political realm of big government. America as it should have been is clearly seen within these pages. Cheek makes this treasure of Southern political theory available to al......more

Goodreads review by Paul/Suzette on February 21, 2019

I know of no other who so plainly and how clearly articulated THE American Political philosophy. Further, I know of no other text which considers American political philosophy and inferring exactly what would happen if we strayed from republican virtue and the rule of law, to democracy and tyranny o......more

Goodreads review by Andrew on August 25, 2019

Can't believe how little I have heard about this previously other than it being the first discussion of libertarian class theory. It's almost a perfect libertarian dissection of the workings of a constitutional democracy.......more

Goodreads review by Gary on October 23, 2017

In over 40 years of studying our heritage and the science of government and reading quotes and pieces from this and his book on our supreme law I finally decided it was time to study both. Written by what I now realize was one of the most brilliant writers and speakers on the topic, it may be I need......more