塑造一个民主的自我：托马斯·杰斐逊与美国民主的起源

Fashioning a Democratic Self:Thomas Jefferson and the Origins of American Democracy

从个人维度来探讨托马斯·杰斐逊对革命的共和事业的奉献,我们可以得出这样一个结论,即杰斐逊的个人独立与美国独立的宣布和维护不可避免地联系在了一起。这位《独立宣言》的起草者与其他签字人一道,不惜舍身拼命以摈弃对乔治三世的效忠,把自己当作造反派和叛徒,同时又把其个人的身份融进他所协助构想出来的"人民"身份之中。揭示杰斐逊革命生涯的个人维度,对于我们理解杰斐逊对自主而能表达同意的个人权利的崇奉,他的自我塑造和他形成中的自治的民主政体的概念,都具有核心意义。

This essay explores the personal dimensions of Thomas Jefferson＇s commitment to the revolutionary republican cause： his personal independence was inextricably linked to the declaration and vindication of American independence. With other signers, the author of the Declaration of Independence put his life on the line, abjuring his allegiance to George III and identifying himself as a rebel and traitor while at the same time submerging his own identity in that of the＂people＂he helped conjure into existence. Onuf illuminates the personal dimension of Jefferson＇s revolutionary career, demonstrating that his commitment to the rights of autonomous, consenting individuals was central both to his own self-fashioning and to his emerging conception of a self-governing democratic polity.