Benjamin Franklin : $b Representative selections, with introduction, bibliograpy, and notesFranklin, Benjamin
General
Benjamin Franklin : $b Representative selections, with introduction, bibliograpy, and notes
Franklin, Benjamin
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
Schlesinger, A. M. "The American Revolution," in _New Viewpoints in
American History_. New York: 1922, pp. 160-83. (A brief but excellent
interpretation, stressing economic factors, and presenting a useful
"Bibliographical Note," pp. 181-3, including references to studies of
political and religious factors. See also studies of the latter by R.
G. Adams, Alice Baldwin, Carl Becker, B. F. Wright, C. F. Mullett, C.
H. Van Tyne, and Edward Humphrey.)
Schneider, H. W. _The Puritan Mind._ New York: 1930. (An acute scholarly
study, with excellent bibliography. The stress on ideas supplements
and balances Parrington's tendency to dismiss ideas as by-products of
economic factors.)
Smith, T. V. _The American Philosophy of Equality._ Chicago: 1927.
(Chapter I includes discussion of "natural rights," with recognition
of the influence of European theorists.)
Smyth, A. H. _The Philadelphia Magazines and Their Contributors,
1741-1850._ Philadelphia: 1892. (Brief descriptive account, mostly
superseded by the relevant sections in F. L. Mott's and L. N.
Richardson's histories.)
Stephen, Leslie. _A History of English Thought in the Eighteenth
Century._ 2 vols. London: 1902 (3rd ed.). (As J. L. Laski observes, it
is "almost insolent to praise such work." In certain aspects, however,
it has been superseded by studies by such men as R. S. Crane, A. O.
Lovejoy, H. M. Jones, etc.)
Stimson, Dorothy. _The Gradual Acceptance of the Copernican Theory of
the Universe._ Hanover, N. H.: 1917.
Taylor, O. H. "Economics and the Idea of Natural Law," _Quarterly
Journal of Economics_, XLIV, 1-39 (Nov., 1929). ("The evolution of the
idea of 'law' in economics" paralleling "its evolution in the natural
sciences" led to belief in an economic mechanism which "was regarded
as a wise device of the Creator for causing individuals, while
pursuing only their own interests, to promote the prosperity of
society, and for causing the right adjustment to one another of
supplies, demands, prices, and incomes, to take place automatically,
in consequence of the free action of all individuals." The author
suggests that there is evident an incongruous dichotomy between the
mechanistic idea of the physiocrats and their assumption that
enlightened men "would be able to use government as a scientific tool
for carrying out purely rationalistic measures in the common
interest." See also outline of his doctoral thesis on this subject.
Harvard University _Summaries of Theses_ [1928], 102-6. An
authoritative study of an important subject.)
Torrey, N. L. _Voltaire and the English Deists._ New Haven: 1930. (Shows
Voltaire's great indebtedness to Newtonianism, which he popularized in
France, and to earlier deists than Bolingbroke. Authoritative.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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