Summary of Thomas E. Ricks's First Principles

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 In 1778, following the harsh winter at Valley Forge, a soldier was asked his opinion of the Roman orator Cato. He responded that he had seen a play about Cato the previous evening, when it was staged in the camp’s bakery.

#2 The classical world was far closer to the makers of the American Revolution and the founders of the United States than it is to us today. It was present in their lives, and it shaped their view of the world.

#3 The ancient world was present in the lives of the Americans who shaped the country, in ways that still echo down the corridors of time. The names of American cities and towns often were references to the ancient world.

#4 The word virtue was heavily significant during the eighteenth century. It was the essential element of public life for the Revolutionary generation. It meant putting the common good before one’s own interests.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Apr 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669392552

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Insights on Thomas E. Ricks's First Principles

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

In 1778, following the harsh winter at Valley Forge, a soldier was asked his opinion of the Roman orator Cato. He responded that he had seen a play about Cato the previous evening, when it was staged in the camp’s bakery.

#2

The classical world was far closer to the makers of the American Revolution and the founders of the United States than it is to us today. It was present in their lives, and it shaped their view of the world.

#3

The ancient world was present in the lives of the Americans who shaped the country, in ways that still echo down the corridors of time. The names of American cities and towns often were references to the ancient world.

#4

The word virtue was heavily significant during the eighteenth century. It was the essential element of public life for the Revolutionary generation. It meant putting the common good before one’s own interests.

#5

The founders’ conception of the ancient world was not the same as ours. They favored different subjects and people than we do in the modern era. They saw the Spartans as plainspoken, simple, free, and stable, while they disparaged the Athenians as turbulent, factionalized, and flighty.

#6

The only ancient Greek dramatist widely read in early America was Terence, a Roman comic playwright who is little read today. The only ancient Greek author widely read in America was Livy, a Roman historian.

#7

The colonial men who went on to design and lead the new American republic were an economic elite, not a long-standing aristocracy. They were thoroughly influenced by the Scottish intellectuals who came to America in the early eighteenth century.

#8

The founders’ classical education taught them that the new nation could exist on public virtue, and that party politics were unnatural and abhorrent. They misunderstood partisanship, and when they accepted human bondage, they sustained a system that was deeply inhumane.

#9

The Greeks and Romans had a system of slavery, but it was not as harsh and exploitative as its American counterpart.

#10

Washington was not a learned man, but he was a thoughtful man who rose to power through classicism. He was not bookish, and instead learned by observation and experience.

#11

Jefferson was extremely critical of Washington, but he still considered him an example of the classical standard. He was a man of deeds rather than words, and he was extremely patient