To be an American

Library Journal

Shaffer offers the first full-length biography of David Ramsay (1749-1815), an important Revolutionary leader from South Carolina. He details Ramsay's childhood in a Protestant-Irish immigrant family, his medical education at Princeton and the College of Philadelphia, and, as a result of three well-planned marriages, his rise to prominence among the Charleston elite. Using his subject to uncover the roots of American character, the author convincingly argues that Ramsay, most notably in his History of the American Revolution (1789), played a pivotal role in the definition of a republican ideology which promised an equality of opportunity and served as the rationale for the union of disparate regional elites. Recommended for general readers and scholars, this well-reasoned book provides insight into an American national character which persists today.-- David Szatmary, Univ. of Wash ington, Seattle

Booknews

Ramsay's The History of the American Revolution, written in 1789, is argued to have marked the beginnings of an American national consciousness, in particular by addressing the needs of the newly developing phenomenon of revolutionary nationalism. Shaffer examines the intellectual and personal development of Ramsay which led him to become a major revolutionary leader. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)