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Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America
by Thomas G. West
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (1997-11-25)
ISBN: 0847685160
EAN: 9780847685165
Dewy Decimal #: 973.5
Hardcover: 240 pages
SKU: 40321
Condition: New
Comments: THE HARDCOVER BOOK! ROWMAN, 1997.THE UNABRIDGED 1ST EDITION. HARDCOVER WITH GILT LETTERING, DUST COVER AND PAGES ARE BRAND NEW! SHIPS IMMEDIATELY WITH FREE TRACKING, GREAT PACKAGING. Air Mail. YW.RD. F2.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
"Compelling, accurate, closely reasoned, and entirely convincing."-- Forrest McDonald, University of Alabama
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Customer Reviews
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Cleansing the mental palate of political correctness
Rating  (4)
Date: 2005-06-24
6 out of 11 customers found this reveiw helpful
It is a crime that the founders of America are dismissed because they are represented as failing to meet our present PC standards of faux morality. This terrific book takes on every PC misconception about them and sets the record straight. While never presenting them is marble pillars of morality, the author puts all of the issues in their proper context and demonstrates clearly the intelligence, morality, and rightness of our founders.
One of the most famous of the old canards that you will still hear is that the founders only considered slaves to be 3/5 of a human being because it says so right there in the Constitution. How sad that misunderstanding and misrepresentation is. Because each state was given a number of representatives based upon the number of residents, the issue was whom do you count. You have to first ask yourself whom the representatives from the slave holding states would represent. The slaves? Of course not!
So, if the rights of the slaves were not going to be protected, to give their slaveholders the ability to count those slaves as people and thereby become over-represented in Congress would actually work against interests of those people trapped in slavery. Those opposing slavery wanted the slaves to remain uncounted for representation. The slaveholders wanted them to count as a full person (does that mean the slaveholders cared about the human rights of the slaves more than the abolitionists?). The compromise was to count them as 3/5. However, it is essential to remember that those who wanted the slaves counted as a whole person were uninterested in the rights of those human beings and those that wanted them uncounted actually had the interests of the slaves more in mind.
Professor West also takes on the issues of property rights, who had the right to vote and why, women and their rights at the time of the revolution, poverty, and immigration.
A good and informative read. Every student should read it as an antidote to the misinformation they get during their indoctrination at the public schools. This book will actually aid their education and help them develop a solid understanding of what is really at stake in our country. And it might spark some lively debate when they go to class armed with some information the teacher will likely find inconvenient or even bewildering. One of my daughters actually had to go to the blackboard and explain the 3/5 issue carefully to the teacher and class. The teacher commented that she had never thought of it that way before. Which, of course, means, that she had always taught it as a political tenet rather than history.
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Negative Reviewers are liars
Rating  (5)
Date: 2005-03-14
8 out of 20 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a FACTUAL and HONESTLY REASONED book. The negative reviewers obviously didn't really read the book, and are unaqainted with American history. Their reasons for the bad reviews simply shows they are either completely dishonest, deliberate liars, or complete morons. Thats about as nice as you can say it when people choose to be wicked.
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Quick and surprising read full of facts few know
Rating (5)
Date: 2004-09-19
8 out of 12 customers found this reveiw helpful
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."
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Not a good read
Rating  (1)
Date: 2004-02-06
7 out of 48 customers found this reveiw helpful
Dr. West has a very wishy-washy argument, arguing against the ideas that blacks, women, and the poor enjoyed life, liberty, and happiness at the founding. He argues the point that the Founding Fathers BELIEVED in TRUE EQUALITY for all, and he proves his point by using the writings of the founders. However, the simple proclamation of principles does no good for society when they are not carried out. He only goes on to explain WHY the Founders could not carry out their principles.
This book is very heavy on the philosophical/principled side of politics, and very lacking in it's examination of the actions undertaken at the founding. I'm only reading the book because it's for my politics class (at the university where he teaches. . . I wonder why we had to buy it. . $$$)
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West Succeeds in Debunking Politically Correct with Facts
Rating (5)
Date: 2002-08-11
12 out of 24 customers found this reveiw helpful
"Vindicating the Founders" does something that most liberals and political correct advocates can't deal with---he presents the facts. As West points out, the founding fathers cannot be critically assessed without their being placed in their historical ephoc. Furthermore, what passes for "freedom" in today's "liberals gone mad" society had a whole different meaning in the late 18th century. Freedom to be gay, have abortions, and choose lifestyles that contradict natural law assuredly were not a concern of the founding fathers. They had more important, practical, and rational concerns to deal with, such as slavery and property rights. Today's fringe element freaks will have to look elsewhere to assuage their compulsion for criticizing everyone who doesn't agree with their childish, undisciplined, and, dare I say, abnormal lifestyles. Tush tush.
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