Philip F. Gura
All Books By Philip F. Gura
Liberty or Justice for All?
- By: Philip F. Gura
- Length: 6 hours 51 minutes
- Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
- Publish date: March 28, 2023
- Language: English
Liberty or Justice for All? brings to life four of America’s greatest thinkers, whose dialogue across the ages has never been more relevant. Philip F. Gura begins his nimble tale with Jonathan Edwards, a fiery preacher who insisted that God would reward those who embraced social cooperation. One generation later, the Founding Fathers grounded their own project of civic renewal in rights and freedom. But if every citizen is guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, does this mean America is a nation where the individual reigns supreme?
America’s young democracy soon found its prophet in Ralph Waldo Emerson, who preached a gospel of self-reliance, small government, and self-improvement. But with the coming of the Civil War, Emerson’s triumphant individual became a cog in a vast war machine. Radical technological transformations convinced the psychologist-turned-philosopher William James that the self was more fragmented and fragile than Emerson believed. He found virtue in pluralism and diversity, seeing selfishness as the cardinal sin. Two world wars and several failed revolutions later, John Rawls, shaken by the divisions of Vietnam, sought to establish a new secular foundation for social cooperation. Over time, we have sought to hold these opposing value systems in delicate balance, promising both liberty and justice for all.
The Life of William Apess, Pequot
- By: Philip F. Gura
- Narrator: Traber Burns
- Length: 7 hours 13 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2015
- Language: English
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4.23(12 ratings)
The Pequot Indian intellectual, author, and itinerant preacher William Apess was one the most important voices of the nineteenth century. Here, Philip F. Gura offers the first book-length chronicle of Apess’ fascinating and consequential life.
After an impoverished childhood marked by abuse, Apess soldiered with American troops during the War of 1812, converted to Methodism, and rose to fame as a lecturer who lifted a powerful voice of protest against the plight of Native Americans in New England and beyond. His 1829 autobiography, A Son of the Forest, stands as the first published by a Native American writer.
Placing Apess’ activism on behalf of Native American people in the context of the era’s rising tide of abolitionism, Gura argues that this founding figure of Native intellectual history deserves greater recognition in the pantheon of antebellum reformers.
Following Apess from his early life through the development of his political radicalism to his tragic early death and enduring legacy, this much-needed biography showcases the accomplishments of an extraordinary Native American.
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