A Better Guide Than Reason: Federalists and Anti-Federalists (Library of Conservative Thought) [Hardcover]

M.E. Bradford (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: Transaction Publishers (January 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560001313
• ISBN-13: 978-1560001317
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,100,576 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Received wisdom over ideology, December 27, 2008

By 

Jason Carter "President of Aegis Strategies, ... (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Better Guide Than Reason: Federalists and Anti-Federalists (Library of Conservative Thought) (Hardcover)

In the spirit of Russell Kirk, who self-consciously valued tradition, prescription, and religion over the abstractions of political theories (or "ideology"), Bradford here presents a collection of essays in the same vein. Bradford was chosen by Ronald Reagan as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. His appointment was intensely opposed by the neo-conservatives due to his critical writings on Lincoln and his support for George Wallace's presidential run. Hopefully the author's being viewed by the neo-cons as dangerous is enough to make you interested in his writings!

"They never will love where they ought to love who do not hate where they ought to hate," said Edmund Burke. Bradford knows where to hate. First, he hates equality (at least its use as a political axiom, where it is essentially meaningless), and has a fine essay in this collection on "The Heresy of Equality." He also detested Lincoln (at least until he apparently softened somewhat in his final year of life), and provides an essay on "Lincoln, the Declaration, and Secular Puritanism: A Rhetoric for Continuing Revolution."

Bradford also loves. He loves liberty and those who seek to defend it. In this volume you will find sympathetic treatments of John Dickinson, Patrick Henry, and William Henry Drayton, as well as a defense of the secession of 1861.

For lovers of liberty, this book is highly recommended.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Work of Scholarship, July 12, 2010

By 

Eric Martin (Bethesda,, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Better Guide Than Reason: Federalists and Anti-Federalists (Library of Conservative Thought) (Hardcover)

Bradford's work demonstrates how it was the "anti-federalists" and not the "federalists" who were the true architects in hammering out the substance of what emerged as the U.S. Constitution. It demolishes the "nationalist fairy tale" as well concerning its origins. Should be required reading for all graduate students of the era.

Eric Martin
Bethesda, MD

4 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Sorry Excuse For History, September 5, 1999

By 

eunomius (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Better Guide Than Reason: Federalists and Anti-Federalists (Library of Conservative Thought) (Hardcover)

This book is a very poor example of scholarship. Bradford attempts to impose his hackneyed ideological theory on the men of the revolutionary and founding generation. He attacks such brilliant scholars as Bernard Bailyn for having the audacity to base his work on reality. In the place of past interpretations, Bradford invents an almost laughable concept of "Old Whig" thought, which in all truthfulness seems to have been made up out of thin air. I could go on and on about the horrible failings of this work, but that is not necessary. Instead, I will only point the potential reader of this work to true works of ideological scholarship, those of Bailyn, Gordon Wood, Caroline Robbins, H. Trevour Colbourn, Pauline Maier et al. While these works are not perfect, they are far superior to Bradford's brand of puerile revisionism.