Introduction

This study aims to reopen a debate that has taken place over the last several decades concerning the uses of Greek and Roman republican thought in the period of transition from early modern to modern times, from the Renaissance through the American and French Revolutions. It argues that we have failed to appreciate that republican thought evolved well beyond its classical beginnings and assumed in modern times a distinctively new way of viewing the world. The source of this misconception is our eagerness to read our present-day preoccupations into the past, especially our admiration for a civic and communal existence. We have invented an American past for the sake of recovering and reviving it in our time. Scholars enamored of New Left or Neoconservative sympathies, by means of the notion of “classical republicanism,” have projected their desires into the historical record. The argument of this chapter is that to overcome our preconceptions we should study not only America but also three other countries: England, Scotland, and France. A comparative perspective is essential.