Haimo Li is Assistant Professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University, Shanghai. He obtained his Doctoral Degree in political science from University of Houston in 2021. He has a coauthored piece with his advisor Professor Jeremy D. Bailey published in the journal History of Political Thought, Volume 42, Number 2 (2021) and a solo piece forthcoming in Studies in Burke and His Time (the journal of the Edmund Burke Society of America). He has also published several studies [in the Chinese Language] in Journal of Social Theory, Twenty-First Century Bimonthly,, Journal of Macau Studies, and Foreign Theoretical Trends. The title of his PhD dissertation is "The Burkean Theme in the Late Jefferson’s Political Writings (1809-1826)". He is the recipient of UH-CLASS Dissertation Completion Fellowship (2020-2021).
Alexander Hamilton penned most of the famous series of essays called the Federalist Papers. In Federalist 71, published in March 1788, he wrote this notable paragraph: It is a just observation, that the people commonly INTEND the PUBLIC GOOD. This often applies to their very errors. But their good sense would despise the adulator who […]
In 1790, when Edmund Burke published his Reflections on the Revolution in France, it triggered lots of backlash from people like Thomas Paine, Richard Price, Joseph Priestley, and Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson wrote a letter to Benjamin Vaughan in May 1791 severely criticizing Burke.[1] This letter has given many scholars an impression that after this point, […]
Antoine Louis Claude Destutt, comte de Tracy (1754–1836) was a famous French Enlightenment philosopher. Thomas Jefferson admired him, and was so impressed with his writings that he translated one of his works into English and published it. In 1811, Jefferson completed his translation of Destutt de Tracy’s Commentary on Montesquieu, writing in thepreface: Montesquieu’s immortal […]
Jefferson scholars all knew that Thomas Jefferson often disparaged the label “Tory” in his political writings. For Jefferson, being called a Whig would signify approval, while being called a Tory was quite derogatory and damaging. There were, however, one or two Tory thinkers that Jefferson truly admired, and Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke seems […]
Thomas Jefferson is well-known for his so-called “Frenchified” stance.[1] On the topic of the relationship between Jefferson and French Revolution, scholarly accounts often stop at depicting Jefferson’s “sympathy for the French Revolution and his aspirations for a democratic republicanism,”[2] merely focusing on Jefferson’s so-called “radicalism.”[3] Scholars tend to describe Jefferson’s enthusiasm for the French Revolution […]
As part of the debate over the constitutionality of the Stamp Act, John Adams wrote a series of letter to the Boston Gazette discussing the nature and duties of the British government. He signed these letters “Clarendon” rather than using his own name.[1] In his January 27, 1766 “Clarendon” letter Adams penned this line: Were I to […]
Scholars generally view that the Framers of the United States Constitution “recalled the historical tyrannies of Great Britain and France in establishing the prohibitions against ex post facto laws (laws having retroactive effect) and bills of attainder (forfeiture of property and civil rights without due process).”[1] In reality, things are more complicated than this simple […]
