Rosenfeld, Sophia A. (Author)
Common sense has always been a cornerstone of American politics. In 1776, Tom Paine's vital pamphlet with that title sparked the American Revolution. And today, common sense---the wisdom of ordinary people, knowledge so self-evident that it is beyond debate---remains a powerful political ideal, utilized alike by George W. Bush's aw-shucks articulations and Barack Obama's down-to-earth reasonableness. But far from self-evident is where our faith in common sense comes from and how its populist logic has shaped modern democracy. Common Sense: A Political History is the first book to explore this essential political phenomenon. The story begins in the aftermath of England's Glorious Revolution, when common sense first became a political ideal worth struggling over. Sophia Rosenfeld's accessible and insightful account then wends its way across two continents and multiple centuries, revealing the remarkable individuals who appropriated the old, seemingly universal idea of common sense and the new strategic uses they made of it. Paine may have boasted that common sense is always on the side of the people and opposed to the rule of kings, but Rosenfeld demonstrates that common sense has been used to foster demagoguery and exclusivity as well as popular sovereignty. She provides a new account of the transatlantic Enlightenment and the Age of Revolutions, and offers a fresh reading on what the eighteenth century bequeathed to the political ferment of our own time. Far from commonsensical, the history of common sense turns out to be rife with paradox and surprise.
...MoreReview Spencer, Mark G. (2012) Review of "Common Sense: A Political History". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 433-434).
Thesis
Deringer, William Peter;
(2012)
Calculated Values: The Politics and Epistemology of Economic Numbers in Britain, 1688--1738
(/isis/citation/CBB001567371/)
Article
Kingston, Ralph;
(2014)
Trading Places: Accumulation as Mediation in French Ministry Map Depots, 1798--1810
(/isis/citation/CBB001551586/)
Book
Folkerts, Menso;
Hashagen, Ulf;
Seising, Rudolf;
(2004)
Form, Zahl, Ordnung. Studien zur Wissenschafts- und Technikgeschichte: Festschrift für Ivo Schneider zum 65. Geburtstag
(/isis/citation/CBB000831158/)
Article
Pinna, Giovanni;
(2008)
Scientific Travels and the Wealth of Nations
(/isis/citation/CBB001036101/)
Article
Weber, Andreas;
(2014)
Bitter Fruits of Accumulation: The Case of Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt (1773--1854)
(/isis/citation/CBB001551588/)
Article
Alexander Moutchnik;
René Sigrist;
(2017)
Les fondements sociaux du premier essor de la botanique en Russie, 1700-1830
(/isis/citation/CBB060852022/)
Chapter
Gerhard Heinzmann;
(2016)
Kant et l'intuition épistémique
(/isis/citation/CBB981942154/)
Book
Chang, Hasok;
(2004)
Inventing Temperature: Measurement and Scientific Progress
(/isis/citation/CBB000641906/)
Chapter
Bruno Belhoste;
(2017)
From Quarry to Paper: Cuvier's Three Epistemological Cultures
(/isis/citation/CBB588948570/)
Chapter
José Luís Cardoso;
(2021)
D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho: economia política, ciência e poder
(/isis/citation/CBB899000429/)
Book
Evaldas Nekrašas;
(2016)
The Positive Mind: Its Development and Impact on Modernity and Postmodernity
(/isis/citation/CBB308281450/)
Article
Franzel, Sean;
(2014)
A “Popular,” “Private” Lecturer? Kant's Theory and Practice of University Instruction
(/isis/citation/CBB001201785/)
Article
Kim, Mi Gyung;
(2014)
Stabilizing Chemical Reality: The Analytic-Synthetic Ideal of Chemical Species
(/isis/citation/CBB001421612/)
Article
Nurok, Michael;
(2003)
Elements of the Medical Emergency's Epistemological Alignment: 18--20th-Century Perspectives
(/isis/citation/CBB000651047/)
Article
Raiger, Michael;
(2010)
Coleridge's Theory of Symbol and the Distinction between Reason and Understanding: A Genealogical Recovery of the Baconian Method of Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001210458/)
Chapter
Vanderburgh, William L.;
(2009)
Theory Choice in the Historical Sciences: Geology as a Philosophical Case Study
(/isis/citation/CBB001021052/)
Book
Dario Generali;
(2016)
Le Radici della Razionalità Critica: Saperi, Pratiche, Teleologie. Studi offerti a Fabio Minazzi
(/isis/citation/CBB605863308/)
Article
Taylor, Michael;
(2014)
British Conservatism, the Illuminati, and the Conspiracy Theory of the French Revolution, 1797--1802
(/isis/citation/CBB001201792/)
Book
Dario Generali;
(2016)
Le Radici della Razionalità Critica: Saperi, Pratiche, Teleologie. Studi offerti a Fabio Minazzi
(/isis/citation/CBB543052276/)
Article
Ivanov, Konstantin;
(2002)
Science after Stalin: Forging a New Image of Soviet Science
(/isis/citation/CBB000300216/)
Be the first to comment!