Description: In this inaugural volume of the Alexis de Tocqueville Lectures, political scientist James Ceaser traces the way certain ideas, including nature, history and religion - which he calls foundational ideas - have been understood and used by statesmen and public intellectuals over the course of American history.
Review Quotes: Ceaser's analysis of American history is highly sophisticated and impressive...The discussants, two political scientists and one historian, give the volume balance both politically and intellectually...[An] engaging, deeply thoughtful, and public-spirited volume.--Daniel Walker Howe"Claremont Review of Books" (09/01/2006)