Prodigals and Pilgrims: The American Revolution Against Patriarchal Authority 1750-1800

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Cambridge University Press, 1982 - 328 pages
The author traces a constellation of intimately related ideas - about the nature of parental authority and filial rights, of moral obligation of Scripture, of the growth of the mind and the nature of historical progress - from their most important English and continental expressions in a variety of literary and theological texts, to their transmission, reception and application in Revolutionary America and in the early national period of American culture.

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Contents

EDUCATIONAL THEORY AND MORAL INDEPENDENCE
9
THE LOCKEAN PARADIGM IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
12
ROUSSEAU AND THE NEW AUTHORITY
29
THE TRANSMISSION OF IDEOLOGY AND THE BESTSELLERS OF 1775
36
THE NEW PATERNITY AND THE BESTSELLERS OF 1775
38
THE PEDAGOGUES
40
THE MORALISTS
51
THE FAMILIAL POLITICS OF THE FORTUNATE FALL
67
LIBERTY AND SONSHIP
174
THE NECESSITY OF REBIRTH
183
THE TRIUMPH OF NURTURE
188
THE CHARACTER OF THE NATIONAL FAMILY
195
GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE RECONSTITUTED FAMILY
197
THE POWER OF EXAMPLE
202
THE CHARACTER OF THE FATHER
208
THE DEBT OF HONOR AND THE GREATER GOOD
214

CLARISSA IN AMERICA
83
FORMS OF FILIAL FREEDOM
93
FRANKLIN AND THE NEW ORDER OF THE AGES
106
PRODIGALS AND PARENTAL TYRANTS
113
AFFECTIONATE UNIONS AND THE NEW VOLUNTARISM
123
FROM PASSIVE TO ACTIVE DISOBEDIENCE
144
FILIAL FREEDOM AND AMERICAN PROTESTANTISM
155
THE ASSAULT ON JEHOVAH
156
HUMAN ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE MORAL CHARACTER OF GOD
164
DISSENT AND CONFIDENCE
221
THE SEALING OF THE GARDEN OR THE WORLD WELL LOST
227
THE HARDENING OF THE HEART
230
VENTRILOQUISTS COUNTERFEITERS AND THE SEDUCTION OF THE MIND
235
THE TRIUMPH OF NEUTRALITY
248
THE NEW FAMILY AS THE NEW WORLD
259
NOTES
269
INDEX
316
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