Bøker av Edward J. Erler

In Prophetic Statesmanship: Harry V. Jaffa, Abraham Lincoln, and the Gettysburg Address, Edward J. Erler presents the lesser-known, late-life scholarship of renowned Lincoln scholar, Harry Victor Jaffa. Through a deep reading of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural, Erler considers some of Jaffa's startling discoveries about Lincoln, Aquinas, Aristotle, and America's political founding--discoveries that sometimes seem to contradict Jaffa's own prior writing and often contradict the existing scholarly consensus. In 1959, Jaffa established himself as a foremost Lincoln scholar when he published Crisis of the House Divided, a revolutionary breakthrough in the understanding of Lincoln's political philosophy. But by the time Jaffa published A New Birth of Freedom (2000), he had developed a deeper understanding of what is known as the "theological-political question," the conflict between theology and politics in philosophical thought. Jaffa referred to this development as his "second sailing." Jaffa was never able to flesh out his evolving ideas about the "theological-political question," as it concerns Abraham Lincoln, while he was alive. At the behest of Jaffa, his student Edward Erler wrote this book to do just that.With his own scholarly aplomb Erler explores Jaffa's scholarship on Aristotle's presence in the American founding; Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Aquinas's surprising, shared--albeit concealed--vision of participatory government; the union of divine law and natural law in the American founding; and the primacy of prudence as supreme political virtue; among other topics. This is a book for anyone interested in the past and future of American political thought.

The United States in Crisis: Citizenship, Immigration, and the Nation State argues that to preserve our freedom Americans must mount a defense of the nation state against the progressive forces who advocate for global government. The Founders of America were convinced that freedom would flourish only in a nation state. A nation state is a collection of citizens who share a commitment to the same principles. Today, the nation state is under attack by the progressive Left, who allege that it is the source of almost every evil in the world. Â

Property and the Pursuit of Happiness presents an account of the crucial role the right to property played in the American founding. This right was understood by the founders as the "pursuit of happiness," which Edward J. Erler argues was considered to be both a natural right and a moral obligation.

Working with the underlying premise that America's founding principles continue to be important in the modern era, this work takes a conservative look at immigration. It seeks to revive the issue of republican character in the immigration debate and to elucidate the constitutional foundations of American citizenship.

A collection of essays which address themselves to the American concern for constitutional government and its attendant political liberty.