1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910299800303321

Autore

Muldoon James

Titolo

John Adams and the Constitutional History of the Medieval British Empire / / by James Muldoon

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2018

ISBN

3-319-66477-8

Edizione

[1st ed. 2018.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (XV, 267 p.)

Collana

Studies in Modern History

Disciplina

973

Soggetti

United States - History

Great Britain - History

History - Philosophy

Imperialism

World politics

US History

History of Britain and Ireland

Philosophy of History

Imperialism and Colonialism

Political History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: The Eighteenth Century and the Middle Ages -- 1 The Norman Yoke: Feudal Law -- 2 The Norman Yoke: Canon Law -- 3 Daniel Leonard and the Modern British Empire -- 4 Is there a British Empire? -- 5 Imperial Origins: Wales, Ireland, America -- 6 Empire by Consent -- Conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

This book contributes to the increasing interest in John Adams and his political and legal thought by examining his work on the medieval British Empire. For Adams, the conflict with England was constitutional because there was no British Empire, only numerous territories including the American colonies not consolidated into a constitutional structure. Each had a unique relationship to the English. In two series of essays he rejected the Parliament’s claim to legislate for the internal



governance of the American colonies. His Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (1765) identified these claims with the Yoke, Norman tyranny over the defeated Saxons after 1066. Parliament was seeking to treat the colonists in similar fashion. The Novanglus essays (1774-75), traced the origin of the colonies, demonstrating that Parliament played no role in their establishment and so had no role in their internal governance without the colonists’ subsequent consent.