This book review was written by Eugene Kernes
“The monarchy’s practice for
centuries had been to reward status with privilege, and sometimes to sell that
privilege for short-term income, compounding the longer-term problem. For what privilege meant, beyond mere social
cachet, was the right not to have to pay tax.
State office-holders, along with tens of thousands of nobles, the
inhabitants of some entire provinces and anyone else with any real social
status were effectively outside the regular system of taxation.” – David
Andress, Chapter 1: ‘he snatched lightning from the heavens’, Page 22
“The individual states lived through the post-war years in
circumstances of continual tension and dispute scarcely different from those of
the Old World kingdoms their inhabitants had left behind. Freed from the heavy hand of British imperial
direction, the commercial interests of the various states had struck out in
support of their own goals, dominating local legislature often chosen on narrow
franchises of wealth, and using the real powers of the states to engross and
monopolise the two routes to American prosperity: seaborne trade and landward
expansion.” – David Andress, Chapter 2: ‘The best model the world has even
produced’, Page 36-37
“Alongside the Sedition Act, Congress also passed three separate Alien Acts, restricting the rights of foreigners to be naturalised as Americans, and allowing citizens of hostile nations, and those merely suspected of antipathies ‘dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States,’ to be deported on presidential authority.” – David Andress, Conclusion, Page 382
Is This An Overview?
Many social changes were happening to the United States,
France, and British during the 1780s-1790s.
Obtaining independence from a monarchy, to defending sovereignty, to
economics, to social rights. Each were
forced to reconsider what they thought of liberty and freedom. Each considered the rights and treatment of
slaves, along with the penal system.
Methods were used to protect free speech, to prevent persecution for
disagreement with those in power. The
privileges of the elite, the nobles were challenged. Exploitation by those in power were to be
resisted. As power shifted to private
entities, to the market system, those in power had their own exploitation
methods which were challenged.
Developing a need for workers’ rights.
Technological development changed infrastructure.
Caveats?
The book covers a range of topics, and therefore there is
limited information on each topic. More
research would be needed to understand each society and event. The history is represented using contemporary
values, of the early 21st century.
Creating a narrative fallacy for what was right and wrong.
