Benjamin Franklin

Chapter I includes discussion of "natural rights," with recognition of the influence of European theorists.)

Monaghan, Frank. _John Jay, Defender of Liberty._ New York: 1935. (A brilliant biography and a fully doc.u.mented study of the activities and diplomacy of the Continental Congress. Supplements S. F. Bemis; see above.)

Moore, C. A. "Shaftesbury and the Ethical Poets in England, 1700-1760,"

_Publications of the Modern Language a.s.sociation_, x.x.xI (N. S. XXIV), 264-325 (June, 1916). (Penetrating and brilliant survey of the growth of altruism, to be supplemented by R. S. Crane"s studies of earlier sources.)

Morais, H. M. _Deism in Eighteenth Century America._ New York: 1934. (If little s.p.a.ce is given to the implications of Deism in terms of political, economic, and literary theory, and if the leaders of deistic thought, such as Franklin, Jefferson, and Paine are too lightly dealt with, this work is "substantial, precise, well-doc.u.mented, modest, cautious, and objective." Has a good bibliography. Reviewed by H. H. Clark, _American Literature_, VI, 467-9, Jan., 1935. See also Morais"s "Deism in Revolutionary America, 1763-89," _International Journal of Ethics_, XLII, 434-53, July, 1932.)

Morley, John. _Diderot and the Encyclopaedists._ 2 vols. London: 1923. (A suggestive survey, parts of which have been superseded by more recent studies.)

Mornet, Daniel. _French Thought in the Eighteenth Century._ Tr. by L. M.

Levin. New York: 1929. (Lucid and penetrating survey; suggestive notes on the influence of speculation motivated by science.)

Mornet, Daniel. _Les origines intellectuelles de la Revolution francaise (1715-1787)._ Paris: 1933. (A brilliant work, concluding that without the extraordinary diffusion of radical ideas in all cla.s.ses in France, the States-General in 1789 would not have adopted revolutionary measures. See C. Brinton"s review, _American Historical Review_, x.x.xIX, 726-7, 1934.)

Morse, W. N. "Lectures on Electricity in Colonial Times," _New England Quarterly_, VII, 364-74 (June, 1934). (Presents fourteen items on the vogue of electrical experiments, 1747-1765.)

Mott, F. L. _A History of American Magazines, 1741-1850._ New York: 1930.

Mullett, C. F. _Fundamental Law and the American Revolution, 1760-1776._ New York: 1933. (A highly important scholarly study, with excellent bibliography of relevant investigations of recent date. Supplements B.

F. Wright.)

Ornstein, Martha. _The Role of Scientific Societies in the Seventeenth Century._ New York: 1913. Reprinted, University of Chicago Press: 1928. (Shows their radical influence. See suggestive reviews in _American Historical Review_, x.x.xIV, 386-7, 1929; and _Times Literary Supplement_ [London], 679, Sept. 27, 1928.)

Osgood, H. L. _The American Colonies in the Eighteenth Century._ 4 vols.

New York: 1924-1925. (Standard work on political aspects.)

Perkins, J. B. _France in the American Revolution._ Boston: 1911.

(Includes able survey of Franklin"s efforts in behalf of colonies.)

Richardson, L. N. _A History of Early American Magazines, 1741-1789._ New York: 1931. (An encyclopedic survey indispensable to all students of the period. Enormously doc.u.mented.)

Robertson, J. M. _A Short History of Free Thought, Ancient and Modern._ 2 vols. London: 1915. (Third edition, revised and expanded. An important survey, if somewhat militantly partisan.)

Roustan, Marius. _The Pioneers of the French Revolution._ Tr. by F.

Whyte, with an Introduction by H. J. Laski. Boston: 1926. (Thesis: "The spirit of the _philosophes_ was the spirit of the Revolution."

Highly readable, but inferior to parallel studies by Martin and Mornet in incisive a.n.a.lysis of patterns of ideas. Stresses picturesque social aspects.)

Schapiro, J. S. _Condorcet and the Rise of Liberalism in France._ New York: 1934. (Condorcet is the "almost perfect expression of the pioneer liberalism of the period"; he is viewed as the "last of the encyclopedists and the most universal of all." A lucid scholarly study, although hardly superseding Alengry"s _Condorcet_.)

Schlesinger, A. M. "The American Revolution," in _New Viewpoints in American History_. New York: 1922, pp. 160-83. (A brief but excellent interpretation, stressing economic factors, and presenting a useful "Bibliographical Note," pp. 181-3, including references to studies of political and religious factors. See also studies of the latter by R.

G. Adams, Alice Baldwin, Carl Becker, B. F. Wright, C. F. Mullett, C.

H. Van Tyne, and Edward Humphrey.)

Schneider, H. W. _The Puritan Mind._ New York: 1930. (An acute scholarly study, with excellent bibliography. The stress on ideas supplements and balances Parrington"s tendency to dismiss ideas as by-products of economic factors.)

Smith, T. V. _The American Philosophy of Equality._ Chicago: 1927.

(Chapter I includes discussion of "natural rights," with recognition of the influence of European theorists.)

Smyth, A. H. _The Philadelphia Magazines and Their Contributors, 1741-1850._ Philadelphia: 1892. (Brief descriptive account, mostly superseded by the relevant sections in F. L. Mott"s and L. N.

Richardson"s histories.)

Stephen, Leslie. _A History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century._ 2 vols. London: 1902 (3rd ed.). (As J. L. Laski observes, it is "almost insolent to praise such work." In certain aspects, however, it has been superseded by studies by such men as R. S. Crane, A. O.

Lovejoy, H. M. Jones, etc.)

Stimson, Dorothy. _The Gradual Acceptance of the Copernican Theory of the Universe._ Hanover, N. H.: 1917.

Taylor, O. H. "Economics and the Idea of Natural Law," _Quarterly Journal of Economics_, XLIV, 1-39 (Nov., 1929). ("The evolution of the idea of "law" in economics" paralleling "its evolution in the natural sciences" led to belief in an economic mechanism which "was regarded as a wise device of the Creator for causing individuals, while pursuing only their own interests, to promote the prosperity of society, and for causing the right adjustment to one another of supplies, demands, prices, and incomes, to take place automatically, in consequence of the free action of all individuals." The author suggests that there is evident an incongruous dichotomy between the mechanistic idea of the physiocrats and their a.s.sumption that enlightened men "would be able to use government as a scientific tool for carrying out purely rationalistic measures in the common interest." See also outline of his doctoral thesis on this subject.

Harvard University _Summaries of Theses_ [1928], 102-6. An authoritative study of an important subject.)

Torrey, N. L. _Voltaire and the English Deists._ New Haven: 1930. (Shows Voltaire"s great indebtedness to Newtonianism, which he popularized in France, and to earlier deists than Bolingbroke. Authoritative.)

Turberville, A. S., ed. _Johnson"s England. An Account of the Life and Manners of His Age._ 2 vols. Oxford University Press: 1933. (Although this collaborative work neglects political, religious, economic, and aesthetic ideas, it embodies readable and authoritative surveys of external aspects of social history, viewed from many angles. Contains useful bibliographies. See review by H. H. Clark, _American Review_, II, No. 4 [Feb., 1934].)

Tyler, M. C. _A History of American Literature, 1607-1765_ (2 vols. New York: 1878), and _The Literary History of the American Revolution_ (2 vols. New York: 1897). (Somewhat grandiloquent but very full survey, including Loyalists. Excellent on literary aspects but partly superseded on ideas. Contains excellent bibliography of primary sources.)

Van Tyne, C. H. _The Causes of the War of Independence._ Boston: 1922.

(Brilliant both in interpretation and style, and well balanced in considering economic, political, social, religious, and philosophic factors.)

Veitch, G. S. _The Genesis of Parliamentary Reform._ London: 1913.

(Useful for English backgrounds.)

Weld, C. R. _A History of the Royal Society with Memoirs of the Presidents._ 2 vols. London: 1848.

Wendell, Barrett. _Cotton Mather, the Puritan Priest._ Cambridge, Ma.s.s.: 1926 [1891]. (A sympathetic study of one of Franklin"s masters, based on a deep knowledge of the Puritan spirit.)

Weulersse, Georges. _Le mouvement physiocratique en France_ (_de 1756 a 1770_). 2 vols. Paris: 1910. (The standard treatment.)

White, A. D. _A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom._ 2 vols. New York: 1897. (Prominent attention given to colonial eighteenth century.)

Whitney, Lois. _Primitivism and the Idea of Progress in English Popular Literature of the Eighteenth Century._ Baltimore: 1934. (An acute study of the history of an important idea, especially as embodied in novels. Occasionally misleading because Miss Whitney does not always pay necessary attention to the major individuals" change of att.i.tude, to their genetic development. Contains no bibliography. See Bury, above.)

Williams, David. "The Influence of Rousseau on Political Opinion, 1760-1795," _English Historical Review_, XLVIII, 414-30 (1933).

Winsor, Justin, ed. _Narrative and Critical History of America._ 8 vols.

Boston: [1884-] 1889. (Especially valuable for bibliographical notes.)

Wright, B. F. _American Interpretations of Natural Law. A Study in the History of Political Thought._ Cambridge, Ma.s.s.: 1931. (An able outline of main trends, although it neglects evidence both in eighteenth-century sermons and in legal papers of colonial attorneys.

Shows strong influence of Grotius, Puffendorf, and Locke on Revolutionary theories. Should be supplemented by C. F. Mullett"s parallel book. Reviewed by R. B. Morris, _American Historical Review_, x.x.xVII, 561-2, April, 1932.)

Wright, T. G. _Literary Culture in Early New England, 1620-1730._ New Haven: 1920. (Valuable for its check lists of colonial libraries, suggesting books current in Franklin"s formative years. The best treatment of its subject although it neglects the literary and aesthetic theories of the period. To be supplemented by books by C. F.

Richardson, W. F. Mitch.e.l.l, and E. C. Cook.)

Further background studies may be found in _The Cambridge History of English Literature_, Cambridge and New York, 1912-1914, VIII-XI, and _The Cambridge History of American Literature_, New York, 1917, Vol. I.

See also the more up-to-date bibliographies in P. Smith"s _A History of Modern Culture_, New York, 1934, II, 647-76; R. S. Crane"s _A Collection of English Poems, 1660-1800_, New York, 1932, pp. 1115-42; and especially O. Shepard and P. S. Wood, _English Prose and Poetry, 1660-1800_, Boston, 1934, pp. x.x.xiii-x.x.xviii and pp. 937-1067. For bibliographical guides, see note following, p. clx.x.xviii.

VI. BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND CHECK LISTS

Boggess, A. C., and Witmer, E. R. _Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the University of Pennsylvania._ (Being the Appendix to the _Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society_, edited by I. M.

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