Background
McDonald, Forrest was born on January 7, 1927 in Orange, Texas, United States. Son of John Forrest and Myra (McGill) McDonald.
(This is a reprint of a previosly published work. It dewal...)
This is a reprint of a previosly published work. It dewals with Samuel Insull, who was Thomas Edison's private secretary and founded the business of centralized electric supply. He organized the Edison General Electric Company.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1587982439/?tag=2022091-20
( "An extraordinary book." —Gordon S. Wood, Brown Univer...)
"An extraordinary book." —Gordon S. Wood, Brown University Having won independence from England, America faced a new question: Would this be politically one nation, or would it not? E Pluribus Unum is a spirited look at how that question came to be answered. That the American people introduced a governmental system adequate to check the very forces unleashed by the Revolution—this, writes Professor McDonald, "was the miracle of the age. . . . The French, the Russians, the Italians, the Germans, all the planet's peoples in their turn, would become so unrestrained as to lose contact with sanity. The Americans might have suffered a similar history had they followed the lead of those who, in 1787 and 1788, spoke in the name . . . of popular 'rights.' But there were giants on the earth in those days, and they spoke in the name of the nation. . . ." Forrest McDonald is Professor of History at the University of Alabama.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0913966592/?tag=2022091-20
(This is the first major interpretation of the framing of ...)
This is the first major interpretation of the framing of the Constitution to appear in more than two decades. Forrest McDonald, widely considered one of the foremost historians of the Constitution and of the early national period, reconstructs the intellectual world of the Founding Fathers including their understanding of law, history political philosophy, and political economy, and their firsthand experience in public affairs and then analyzes their behavior in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in light of that world. No one has attempted to do so on such a scale before. McDonald's principal conclusion is that, though the Framers brought a variety of ideological and philosophical positions to bear upon their task of building a "new order of the ages," they were guided primarily by their own experience, their wisdom, and their common sense. "A witty and energetic study of the ideas and passions of the Framers." New York Times Book Review "Bristles with wit and intellectual energy." Christian Science Monitor "A masterpiece. McDonald's status as an interpreter of the Constitution is unequalled magisterial." National Review
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0700603115/?tag=2022091-20
(Jefferson Lecturer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Forrest Mc...)
Jefferson Lecturer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Forrest McDonald is widely recognized as one of our most respected and challenging historians of the Constitution. He has been called brilliant, provocative, controversial, passionate, pugnacious, and crafty in intellectual combat. Whatever the label, he remains unsurpassed as a commentator on the American founding. Novus Ordo Seclorum, his best-known work, was hailed as "magisterial," "a tour-de-force," "the American history book of the decade," "the best single book on the origins of the U.S. Constitution," and was featured on Bill Moyers's highly praised PBS series In Search of the Constitution. McDonald now applies his considerable talents to a study of another venerable institution-the American presidency. Writing at the height of his powers as an intellectual historian, McDonald explores how and why the presidency has evolved into such a complex and powerful institution, unlike any other in the world. Scores of republics have come into existence during the last two centuries and many have adopted constitutions similar to our own. But, as McDonald persuasively shows, the American presidency is unique-no other nation has a leadership position that combines the seemingly incongruous roles of ceremonial head of state and chief executive magistrate. Lacking an acceptable role model, McDonald explains, the founding fathers constructed their idea of the presidency from sources as diverse as the Bible, Machiavelli, John Locke, the Ancient Greeks and Romans, the laws of England, and the early colonial and state government experiences. So many influences, he suggests, guaranteed a substantial degree of persistent ambiguity and contradiction in the office. McDonald chronicles the presidency's creation, implementation, and evolution and explains why it's still working today despite its many perceived afflictions. Along the way, he provides trenchant commentary upon the Constitutional Convention, ratification debates, presidencies of Washington and Jefferson, presidential administration and leadership, presidential-congressional conflicts, the president as chief architect of foreign policy, and the president as myth and symbol. He also analyzes the enormous gap between what we've come to expect of presidents and what they can reasonably hope to accomplish. Ambitious, comprehensive, and engaging, this is the best single-volume study of an institution that has become troubled and somewhat troublesome yet, in McDonald's words, "has been responsible for less harm and more good than perhaps any other secular institution in history." It will make a fine and necessary companion for understanding the presidency as it moves into its third century.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0700607498/?tag=2022091-20
(Jefferson Lecturer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Forrest Mc...)
Jefferson Lecturer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Forrest McDonald is widely recognized as one of our most respected and challenging historians of the Constitution. He has been called brilliant, provocative, controversial, passionate, pugnacious, and crafty in intellectual combat. Whatever the label, he remains unsurpassed as a commentator on the American founding. Novus Ordo Seclorum, his best-known work, was hailed as "magisterial," "a tour-de-force," "the American history book of the decade," "the best single book on the origins of the U.S. Constitution," and was featured on Bill Moyers's highly praised PBS series In Search of the Constitution. McDonald now applies his considerable talents to a study of another venerable institution-the American presidency. Writing at the height of his powers as an intellectual historian, McDonald explores how and why the presidency has evolved into such a complex and powerful institution, unlike any other in the world. Scores of republics have come into existence during the last two centuries and many have adopted constitutions similar to our own. But, as McDonald persuasively shows, the American presidency is unique-no other nation has a leadership position that combines the seemingly incongruous roles of ceremonial head of state and chief executive magistrate. Lacking an acceptable role model, McDonald explains, the founding fathers constructed their idea of the presidency from sources as diverse as the Bible, Machiavelli, John Locke, the Ancient Greeks and Romans, the laws of England, and the early colonial and state government experiences. So many influences, he suggests, guaranteed a substantial degree of persistent ambiguity and contradiction in the office. McDonald chronicles the presidency's creation, implementation, and evolution and explains why it's still working today despite its many perceived afflictions. Along the way, he provides trenchant commentary upon the Constitutional Convention, ratification debates, presidencies of Washington and Jefferson, presidential administration and leadership, presidential-congressional conflicts, the president as chief architect of foreign policy, and the president as myth and symbol. He also analyzes the enormous gap between what we've come to expect of presidents and what they can reasonably hope to accomplish. Ambitious, comprehensive, and engaging, this is the best single-volume study of an institution that has become troubled and somewhat troublesome yet, in McDonald's words, "has been responsible for less harm and more good than perhaps any other secular institution in history." It will make a fine and necessary companion for understanding the presidency as it moves into its third century.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0700606521/?tag=2022091-20
(Forrest McDonald has long been recognized as one of our m...)
Forrest McDonald has long been recognized as one of our most respected and provocative intellectual historians. With this new book, he once again delivers an illuminating meditation on a major theme in American history and politics. Elegantly and accessibly written for a broad readership, McDonald's book provides an insightful look at states' rights-an issue that continues to stir debate nationwide. From constitutional scholars to Supreme Court justices to an electorate that's grown increasingly wary of federal power, the concept of states' rights has become a touchstone for a host of political and legal controversies. But, as McDonald shows, that concept has deep roots that need to be examined if we're to understand its implications for current and future debates. McDonald's study revolves around the concept of imperium in imperio—literally "sovereignty within sovereignty" or the division of power within a single jurisdiction. With this broad principle in hand, he traces the states' rights idea from the Declaration of Independence to the end of Reconstruction and illuminates the constitutional, political, and economic contexts in which it evolved. Although the Constitution, McDonald shows, gave the central government expansive powers, it also legitimated the doctrine of states' rights. The result was an uneasy tension and uncertainty about the nature of the central government's relationship to the states. At times the issue bubbled silently and unseen beneath the surface of public awareness, but at other times it exploded. McDonald follows this episodic rise and fall of federal-state relations from the Hamilton-Jefferson rivalry to the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, New England's resistance to Jefferson's foreign policy and the War of 1812, the Nullification Controversy, Andrew Jackson's war against the Bank of the United States, and finally the vitriolic public debates that led to secession and civil war. Other scholars have touched upon these events individually, but McDonald is the first to integrate all of them from the perspective of states' rights into one synthetic and magisterial vision. The result is another brilliant study from a masterful historian writing on a subject of great import for Americans.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0700612270/?tag=2022091-20
(Forrest McDonald has long been recognized as one of our m...)
Forrest McDonald has long been recognized as one of our most respected and provocative intellectual historians. With this new book, he once again delivers an illuminating meditation on a major theme in American history and politics. Elegantly and accessibly written for a broad readership, McDonald's book provides an insightful look at states' rights-an issue that continues to stir debate nationwide. From constitutional scholars to Supreme Court justices to an electorate that's grown increasingly wary of federal power, the concept of states' rights has become a touchstone for a host of political and legal controversies. But, as McDonald shows, that concept has deep roots that need to be examined if we're to understand its implications for current and future debates. McDonald's study revolves around the concept of imperium in imperio—literally "sovereignty within sovereignty" or the division of power within a single jurisdiction. With this broad principle in hand, he traces the states' rights idea from the Declaration of Independence to the end of Reconstruction and illuminates the constitutional, political, and economic contexts in which it evolved. Although the Constitution, McDonald shows, gave the central government expansive powers, it also legitimated the doctrine of states' rights. The result was an uneasy tension and uncertainty about the nature of the central government's relationship to the states. At times the issue bubbled silently and unseen beneath the surface of public awareness, but at other times it exploded. McDonald follows this episodic rise and fall of federal-state relations from the Hamilton-Jefferson rivalry to the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, New England's resistance to Jefferson's foreign policy and the War of 1812, the Nullification Controversy, Andrew Jackson's war against the Bank of the United States, and finally the vitriolic public debates that led to secession and civil war. Other scholars have touched upon these events individually, but McDonald is the first to integrate all of them from the perspective of states' rights into one synthetic and magisterial vision. The result is another brilliant study from a masterful historian writing on a subject of great import for Americans.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0700610405/?tag=2022091-20
( “What Mr. McDonald’s book does, with exceptional skill ...)
“What Mr. McDonald’s book does, with exceptional skill and learning, is to re-examine Hamilton’s policies as secretary of the treasury. To this task the author brings a masterful knowledge of the politics of the period. . . . He brilliantly demonstrates how William Blackstone, David Hume and Jacques Necker affected Hamilton’s thought. Finally, Mr. McDonald . . . gives the clearest exposition that I have ever seen of just what Hamilton’s financial policies were and how they worked.” —David Herbert Donald, New York Times Book Review The founders of the American republic were ardently concerned with the judgment of posterity. Had they known what a fickle muse Clio would prove to be, they might have been more anxious. The making of myths and legends, complete with a hagiology and demonology, is inherent in the process of evolution toward nationhood. Consequently, individual actors in the original drama have often been consigned by History to roles they did not actually play, and the most important of them have played shifting roles, being heroes in one generation and villains in the next. It is therefore not surprising that Alexander Hamilton—along with Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Madison—has had his ups and downs at the hands of historians.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/039330048X/?tag=2022091-20
(In 1776 "E Pluribus Unum" was suggested as the motto of t...)
In 1776 "E Pluribus Unum" was suggested as the motto of the United States by Franklin, Adams and Jefferson. It is an extraordinarily apt title for this history of the foundation of the U.S. government. When independence was declared, some sort of government had to be devised to carry on the war and establish the new nation which was hoped to emerge from that struggle. In E Pluribus Unum Mr. McDonald gives us the most thorough, penetrating and lively account yet written of the critical years between 1776 and 1790 when at last a government with the ability to survive was secured. It was a time of confusion, of conflict, of the pull of personal interests against the common weal. Finally, it was a time which brought face to face the two perennially conflicting views of man -- as innately good and as inherently inclined to evil.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AH5FSGO/?tag=2022091-20
McDonald, Forrest was born on January 7, 1927 in Orange, Texas, United States. Son of John Forrest and Myra (McGill) McDonald.
Bachelor, Master of Arts, University Texas, 1949. Doctor of Philosophy, University Texas, 1955. Master of Arts (honorary), Brown University, 1962.
Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), State University of New York, Geneseo, 1989.
Executive secretary American History Research Center, Madison, Wisconsin, 1953-1958. Associate professor history Brown University, Providence, 1959-1963, professor, 1963-1967, Wayne State University, Detroit, 1967-1976, University Alabama, Tuscaloosa, 1976-1987, distinguished university research professor, 1987—2002, professor emeritus, since 2002. James Pinckney Harrison professor College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1986-1987.
Presidential appointee Board Foreign Scholarships, Washington, 1985-1987. Member fellowship selection committee Richard M. Weaver Fellowships, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, since 1980.
(Jefferson Lecturer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Forrest Mc...)
(Jefferson Lecturer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Forrest Mc...)
(McDonald deftly re-creates the intellectual dimension of ...)
(Forrest McDonald has long been recognized as one of our m...)
(Forrest McDonald has long been recognized as one of our m...)
(This is the first major interpretation of the framing of ...)
(In 1776 "E Pluribus Unum" was suggested as the motto of t...)
(This is a reprint of a previosly published work. It dewal...)
( "An extraordinary book." —Gordon S. Wood, Brown Univer...)
( “What Mr. McDonald’s book does, with exceptional skill ...)
Author: We The People, 1958, Insull, 1962, E Pluribus Unum, 1965, Alexander Hamilton, 1979 (Frances Tavern Book award 1980), Novus Ordo Seclorum, 1985, Requiem, 1988, The American Presidency: An Intellectual History, 1994, States Rights and the Union, 2000, Recovering the Past: A Historian's Memoir, 2004.
Trustee Philadelphia Society, North Adams, Michigan, 1983-1986, 87-90, president 1988-1990. Co-chairman New England for Goldwater, 1964. Served with United States Navy, 1945-1946.
Horticulture, tennis.
Married Ellen Shapiro, August 1, 1963. Children from previous marriage: Kathy, Forrest Howard, Marcy Ann, Stephen, Kevin.