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American democracy Quote by Tom Reiss

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““(Modern versions of this argument held that American democracy was born of the slave society of rural Virginia, because slavery gave men like Washington and Jefferson the free time to better themselves and to participate in representative government.)””

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More by Tom Reiss

“At first, the Jacobin Club was not the most radical club. It was known for its lively, collegial debates and for attracting diverse and…

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“energized and emboldened delegates of the Third Estate, the “99 percent”—in reality, closer to 96 percent—of the French population who paid the bulk of…

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“Suddenly Paris fashion-that bellwether for the French mind-had to be à l'Amérique: tailors manufactured "insurgent coats" and "lightning-conductor dresses" (in honor of Ben Franklin,…

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“The way it had originally worked was that each of the three estates got an equal say: each had an equal number of “deputies”…

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“The bitter irony was that the financial crisis had largely been caused by French support of the American patriots; in getting back at the…

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“Man is born free but is everywhere in chains,” wrote Jean-Jacques Rousseau in The Social Contract in 1762. A generation of crusading lawyers put…

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“When they weren’t running meat—or rum—they worked as salt miners or piloted small boats along the coast. These highland Saint-Dominguans, along with more recent…

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“Unhappiness cannot but draw tighter the bonds which hold us fast to one another," General Dumas had written to Marie-Louise as he made his…

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“Wednesday, June 17, 1789, France went from a system where only the nobility and the church had power to a system where, at least…

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“in 1788, he had become infatuated by the American republic and its spirit of “simplicity, goodness, and that dignity of man which is the…

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“Alex Dumas had the confidence that accompanies a life of physical exploits, along with an unwavering faith in the rightness of his actions that…

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“This mulatto gentleman could powder and dress as he liked, however, because he was acknowledged to be the greatest swordsman in Europe. Over the…

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Explore all 43 Tom Reiss quotes

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Men like Abraham Lincoln recognized that if the slaveholders were not stopped, it would only be a question of time until they spread their…

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These communities that are losing local news coverage are losing something deeper. They're losing a connection to American democracy. And those connections must be…

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Political violence has no place in Pennsylvania - the birthplace of American democracy - nor anywhere else across this country.

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