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The Founders Saw the Dangers of Great Wealth
February 24 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm EST
Featuring Dr. Daniel Mandell, Emeritus Professor of History, Truman State University. Author of the “The Lost Tradition of Economic Equality in America, 1600-1870.” Dr. Mandell will examine politics, theology, economics, law and literature to highlight how the founding generation of the United States feared that concentrated wealth would corrupt their republic. Their belief in the need for a “rough equality” of property was shaped by Roman historians, radical Protestant writers, and Enlightenment philosophers, and supported by the remarkable level of economic parity before the American Revolution. In the wake of the war, Americans generally believed that they lived in the most egalitarian country in the world, but worried that it would be ruined by men using great wealth to gain power. Although this tradition of economic equality would be marginalized after 1800, it remained a significant part of American culture.
Reception Following the Lecture. Free and Open to the Public.
