The Timeless Ideas of America’s Founding Fathers

November 11, 2021
By Timothy Sandefur

In his book America’s Revolutionary Mind, Clemson University professor C. Bradley Thompson explores the moral and political ideas underlying the American Revolution—and does so with a fresh perspective that refutes many of the myths that both right and left have tried to advance recently about what the Founding Fathers thought.

I reviewed the book for National Review, and this past summer, I got a chance to engage him in a conversation at a conference hosted by the Objective Standard Institute. We got to trade thoughts about Jefferson versus Adams, the radicalism of Thomas Paine, the Founders’ thoughts about slavery, and the notion popular with some historians that the Revolution was about “republicanism” rather than freedom.

You can watch the full video above.

Timothy Sandefur is the Vice President for Litigation at the Goldwater Institute.