Humes Reception in Early America: Expanded Edition

(Paperback, 2nd edition)

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Hume's Reception in Early America: Expanded Edition brings together the original American responses to one of Britains greatest men of letters, David Hume. Now available as a single volume paperback, this new edition includes updated further readings suggestions and dozens of additional primary sources gathered together in a completely new concluding section. From complete pamphlets and booklets, to poems, reviews, and letters, to extracts from newspapers, religious magazines and literary and political journals, this books contents come from a wide variety of sources published in colonial America and the early United States between 1758 and 1850. As well as classics by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, it contains scores of unknown and hard-to-locate items, many of which have not been reprinted since their original publication. These responses are divided into four parts covering Hume's Essays; his Philosophical Writings; his History of England; and his Character and Death. Each of those parts has a separate introductory essay, and every selection is introduced by a short headnote that sets the piece in its historical context and provides bibliographical references. Packed with new insights into Hume and American thought and culture, Hume's Reception in Early America reveals the relevance and impact of Hume on American political, philosophical, historical, religious, and aesthetic debates.

Reviews

This volume is an indispensable source for Hume scholars, historians of the period and anyone interested in how Humes extensive writings were received in America from 1758 1850. Most of the 125 extracts will be unknown and inaccessible to the majority of readers. Largely for religious, political and linguistic reasons there was much closer engagement with Humes writings on religion and history by American commentators than by continental European writers, and Spencer here provides impeccably documented quotations and references. First published in 2002, this enlarged and corrected paper-back version is a splendid achievement. -- Peter Jones, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Edinburgh, UK
For anyone doubting Hume's profound importance as a philosopher, historian and political thinker in the age of the Enlightenment, Spencer's unparalleled run of evidence for his wide-ranging contemporary American reception ought to be regarded as conclusive proof. -- David Allan, Reader in Scottish History, University of St Andrews, UK
Made available for the first time in an affordable paperback edition, Spencers outstanding anthology of printed responses to the works of David Hume is a primary point of reference for scholars and students interested in the American Enlightenment. One of the most striking revelations reinforced by 38 newly discovered primary sources added to this new edition is that Hume remained a central part of American periodical culture well into the nineteenth century. -- Mark R. M. Towsey, Senior Lecturer in Modern British History, University of Liverpool, UK
Mark C. Spencer's expanded edition of his well-received Hume's Reception in Early America (2002), greatly enhanced by the addition of 125 excellent new entries which strengthen his argument that Hume's works were quite well-known to members of America's intellectual culture before 1850, is an outstanding model of primary source research and topical organization. -- Roger J. Fechner, Professor Emeritus of History, Adrian College, USA
This expanded paperback edition is welcome, and it has the added benefit of including an addendum with 38 new primary sources (and some editorial corrections to the earlier edition) [A] valuable resource for those interested in early American philosophy and politics. * CHOICE *

Author Bio

Mark G. Spencer is Associate Professor of History at Brock University, Canada. He is the author of David Hume and Eighteenth-Century America (2005) and has edited eleven volumes, including David Hume: Historical Thinker, Historical Writer (2013) and The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of American Enlightenment (2015).