| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 201 words from this article are provided below; about 334 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Consent of the Governed: The Lockean Legacy in Early American Culture. By Gillian Brown. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001. 237 pp. $49.95, ISBN 0-674-00298-9.)

A book should be considered on its own terms, and the terms of The Consent of the Governed are threefold. Gillian Brown wants to prove first that John Locke's theories about the consent of the governed and the education of children constitute a particular "Lockean legacy" in American culture; second, that through this legacy "the ideal of the consent of the child stands as the originary story of the American republic"; and, third, that slippage in the Lockean concept of consent allows for a feminization of consent that recognizes women's (and other discriminated groupings') disenfranchisement without advocating their enfranchisement. 1

Unfortunately, neither the limited scope nor the theme-driven historicity of The Consent of the Governed can sustain these heady claims. Brown offers a handful of close readings and a plethora of secondary critics (many of whom are carefully congratulated in the endnotes for their own perspicacity) to make her case. Missing from this study are the broad examination of primary texts and the consideration of eighteenth-century ideological alternatives that any historian would require. . . .

There are about 334 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.