The Life of the Mind in America
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Victor Nuovo: A little-known transcendentalist
27th essay in a seriesI suspect that almost everyone who reads this essay will be unfamiliar with Margaret Fuller (1810–50). Her name does not ring a bell in…
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Victor Nuovo: Emerson wrestled with identity, self
25th in a series “The Universe is alive. All things are moral. The soul, which within us is a sentiment, outside us is a law. We feel its…
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Victor Nuovo: Transcendentalism
23rd in a series During the middle of the third decade of the 19th century, there occurred in New England a third great awakening. It did not pertain…
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Victor Nuovo: American individualism
22nd in a series “Everything is what it is, and not another thing,” or, to put it briefly, “a thing is itself and not another.” This is a…
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Victor Nuovo: History gives moral direction
21st in a series The Second Great Awakening denotes a period of religious revival that lasted over 40 years, roughly from 1795 until 1835. It left an indelible…
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Victor Nuovo: Tocqueville and governance
20th in a series “Democracy in America” is the title of a book that has become an American Classic. Its author was not an American, but a French…
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Victor Nuovo: America’s failed moral purist
19th in a series To begin with, Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) was a hypocrite. Although he could speak and write eloquently in favor of human liberty and equality from…
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Victor Nuovo: Rule by the People comes from Locke
18th in a series John Locke (1632–1704) was not an American, nor did he ever set foot on the American continent — although for a short time he…
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Victor Nuovo: Rule of law is a living tradition
17th in a series The Constitution of the United States is not engraved in stone. It can be changed by adding, deleting and revising. Article VI of the…
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Victor Nuovo: America’s unique republic
16th in a series The United States of America is not a Democracy, it is a Democratic Republic, or simply, “a Republic.” On this point, all the founders…
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Victor Nuovo: Devotion to the new republic
15th in a series Alexander Hamilton (1755 or 1757–1804) has not enjoyed the celebrity of other founders of this nation, neither of Washington nor Adams nor Jefferson. His…
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Victor Nuovo: The choice for a Union
14th in a series The Constitutional Convention completed its work on Sept. 17, 1787, by adopting the Constitution that it had drafted and sending the document to the…
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Victor Nuovo: The Constitution’s 7 articles
13th in a series The Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787. It consisted of delegates from 12 of the 13 states. Its first action was…
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Victor Nuovo: The U.S. Constitution: Why we have a duty to defend our fundamental law
12th in a series American Constitutionalism is a system of government founded on a fundamental law, which is not biased to the wishes and whims of a monarch,…
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Victor Nuovo: George Washington set the example
Eleventh in a series. George Washington (1732–99) was not an intellectual. He did not attend college. He did not read books; he was not a great orator, and…
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Victor Nuovo: The man who would not be king
Tenth in a series. There is a tale told about George Washington — I may have first heard it in school — that shortly after Lord Cornwallis surrendered…