In print here for the first time is the dissertation of Douglass G. Adair, a classic work that-despite being formally unpublished since its writing in 1943-has had a profound influence on several generations of historians of American political thought. It is a masterpiece of exploration into and analysis of the sources of American republican thought.
Written in 1943, this work has been called a seminal analysis of the origins of American democracy. The author offers a critique of economic determinism with emphasis on the influence of ideology on the "Founders of Jeffersonian Democracy".