Two Tracts on Civil Liberty, the War with America, and the Debts and Finances of

Price, Richard, 1723-1791Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.9
Word count
522K words
Chapters
53

Tags

English Originals Politics Political AllegoryPower GameCivic AwarenessSocial CritiqueWestern ThoughtMoral CultivationMoral DilemmaIntellectual CommentaryPopular ExplanationModern China

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Two Tracts on Civil Liberty, the War with America, and the Debts and Finances ofAuthor: Price, Richard, 1723-1791,Language: English, Class: E201: History: America: Revolution (1775-1783), Release Date: Sep 24, 2018

Editor's review

Richard Price's two pamphlets on civil liberty, the war with America, and debts and finances are important texts for understanding late eighteenth-century British radical political economy and the debate over the American War of Independence. Combining moral philosophy with fiscal analysis, Price discusses the principles of liberty, the cost of war and the impact of public debt on the state; his argument is clear and polemical, bearing the strong stamp of pamphlet controversy. For readers studying the history of the American Revolution, British political thought and public finance, the book offers first-hand polemical material and helps explain how transatlantic public debate unfolded at the time. Some historical background is needed, especially familiarity with Anglo-American politics and finances in the 1760s–1780s; otherwise one may see only abstract principles and miss the concrete targets of the controversy.

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Reading tips

  1. Learn first about Price himself and the eighteenth-century British radical milieu before entering the text, so as to understand whom he is arguing against.
  2. Distinguish as you read between the two threads of civil liberty principles and fiscal-data argument, and take notes on each separately.
  3. Read alongside related documents from the American Revolutionary era to observe the interaction of transatlantic controversy.
  4. Slow down at fiscal terminology and understand it in the context of contemporary national debt and war expenditure.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

What do the two pamphlets mainly discuss? They argue mainly around the principles of civil liberty, Britain's war with the North American colonies, and the resulting debts and finances; they belong to late eighteenth-century British radical political pamphleteering.
Can I read it without a background in American Revolutionary history? You can, but understanding will be limited. It is advisable first to acquire basic background on Anglo-American conflict and British finances in the 1760s–1780s; otherwise the polemic may be taken as abstract principle.
Is the English difficult? The text consists of eighteenth-century English pamphlets, with long sentences, dense argument, and fiscal terminology and historical figures. It suits readers with reasonable English reading ability and historical background.

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About the author

Price, Richard, 1723-1791 Author

Richard Price (1723-1791) was an eighteenth-century British moral philosopher and political writer, known for pamphlets on liberty, rights and public finance. Public information on his life and education is limited, and this collection holds only one of his works, Two Tracts on Civil Liberty, the War with America, and the Debts and Finances of. The title points to three connected themes: the principles of civil liberty, Britain's war with its North American colonies, and the national debt and finances. Writing of this kind addressed the reading public of the day in argumentative prose, joining moral philosophy to concrete policy disputes and intervening in parliamentary politics and public debate through the pamphlet form. His writings drew responses in both Britain and America, and his arguments on liberty and finance remain useful for the study of eighteenth-century political thought and the Anglo-American controversy.