Revolutions Revisited

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Focusing on the politics of enlightenment, Ralph Lerner explores how 18th-century revolutionaries in America and Europe articulated their vision of liberation for both bodies and minds. He highlights figures like Benjamin Franklin and examines the rhetoric used to inspire public aspirations. Lerner further analyzes how later political leaders, including Edmund Burke, Abraham Lincoln, and Alexis de Tocqueville, creatively reinterpreted revolutionary ideals amidst their era's divisions, drawing on a rich tradition of political rhetoric rooted in classical philosophy.