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It is now two hundred years since the birth of Thomas Jefferson. His name has become one of the major symbols in the tradition we call American. The personality of the man shows vigorously in his letters, in the results of his policies as a leader and in the restored Monticello which he loved more than any other spot on the face of the earth. We study his personality because of his interest in science, his appreciation of invention, but surely not because of his metaphysics. We admire him because of his belief in progress, but not because he avowed himself a materialist. We remember him because he could see in outline the drama of a growing United States, but not because of his perverse judgments on New England leaders. Those who love America as it is, can see the results of his policy in our imperial domain and in the establishment of political traditions that still seem valid for contemporary life. To those who dream of a society that yet is not, Jefferson stands as a symbol of the new world, the progenitor of benevolent reforms that may yet make men happy. Both the realist and the Utopian can find in the complexities of Jefferson's personality much that gives them encouragement and emotional support. We see Jefferson's work in the living America, both that which is and that which many believe ought to be.

What really distinguished the Puritans in their day was that they were less interested in theology itself than in the application of theology to everyday life. They were less concerned with perfecting their formulation of the truth than with making their society in America embody this truth. Down to the middle of the 18th cent, there was hardly an important work of speculative theology or a major theologian produced by the New England Orthodoxy. In New England the critics, doubters & dissenters were expelled from the community. In England the Puritans had to find ways of living with them. It was in England, therefore, that a modern theory of toleration began to develop. The characteristic institution of Puritanism here was the sermon, a ritualistic application of theology to community-building. The problems which worried the Puritans in New England were 3: (a) how to select leaders & representatives, (b) what was the proper limit of pol'al power, & (c) what made a feasible federal org. All the circumstances of New England life - tradition, theology, & the problems of the New World - combined to nourish concern with such practical problems as these. US Puritans were hardly more distracted from their practical tasks by theology & metaphysics than we are today. J. A. Fishman.

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- The Clash of Traditions -- The Foundations of a Different Modernity -- The Revolt against Reason and Natural Rights -- The Political Culture of Prejudice -- The Law of Inequality and the War on Democracy -- The Intellectual Foundations of Nationalism -- The Crisis of Civilization, Relativism, and the Death of Universal Values at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century -- The Anti-Enlightenment of the Cold War -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Index.

Intro -- Contents -- Table of Contents for Volumes I-IV -- Foreword. David Hartman -- Preface and Acknowledgments. Michael Walzer -- Introduction: The Jewish Political Tradition. Michael Walzer -- The Selection, Translation, and Presentation of the Texts. Menachem Lorberbaum and Noam J. Zohar -- Law, Story, and Interpretation: Reading Rabbinic Texts. Michael Fishbank -- List of Abbreviations -- Volume I. Authority -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Covenant: God's Law and the People's Consent -- Chapter 2. Revelation: Torah and Reason -- Chapter 3. Kings -- Chapter 4. Priests -- Chapter 5. Prophets -- Chapter 6. Rabbis and Sages -- Chapter 7. Controversy and Dissent -- Chapter 8. The Good Men of the Town -- Chapter 9. The Gentile State -- Chapter 10. The State of Israel -- Glossary of Names -- Glossary of Terms -- List of Commentators -- Index of Biblical and Rabbinic Sources -- Index of Names -- General Index.