The Spirit of Modern Republicanism

Pangle reads the American founding as Lockean in a stronger sense than its defenders usually allow: the founders’ moral vision, he argues, was built on Locke’s account of individual rights, acquisition and consent rather than on classical or Christian virtue, and the founding’s difficulties follow from that choice rather than from a failure to live up to it. Published by the University of Chicago Press in 1988.

Why it’s on the list: Paired with Diamond in The American Experiment: two readings of the same founding, one treating it as a republican achievement and one asking what was given up to make it Lockean.

Where I saw it: Brendan McCord’s Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, in the section on The American Experiment. Shared on X on March 9, 2026 and saved to Kyle’s “Books To Read” Apple Note. The full 211-entry transcription, with the four parts and sixteen sub-sections, is on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this card came from.
• Liberalism — the tradition Pangle locates the founding inside.
• Leo Strauss — the interpretive tradition Pangle writes from.
• Human Nature — the Lockean premise the book makes load-bearing.