Description
Get our FREE Newsletter at https://www.PrometheanAction.com — In this June 27, 2026 Promethean Action Weekly class, host Tony introduces Judy Hodgkiss discussing her new book, The Right to Pursue Happiness, arguing that mainstream historians wrongly credit John Locke’s social contract and Voltaire as chief sources of America’s founding ideas. Hodgkiss traces “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” to a Leibnizian, spiritually grounded conception of government transmitted through Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke, whose writings circulated widely in the colonies and influenced figures such as George Wythe and James Wilson; she also notes Benjamin Franklin’s promotion and printing of Bolingbroke’s The Idea of a Patriot King. Using Jefferson’s draft edits and the shift from “property” to “pursuit of happiness,” she contrasts Tory opposition to Anglo-Dutch financial oligarchy with Whig/Locke banking networks, surveys cultural-scientific efforts tied to Bolingbroke’s circles, and closes with Voltaire’s later attack on “optimism” and modern dismissals of Leibnizian thought.
👉🏻 Get Judy's Book, *The Right to Pursue Happiness: How Leibniz and Bolingbroke Shaped America's Founding Vision* https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0H63P77XB
00:00 Welcome and Setup
01:02 Book as Counterattack
05:11 Meet Leibniz and Bolingbroke
08:41 LaRouche Research Origins
10:40 Book Blurb and Thanks
12:38 Tories vs Whigs Worldview
18:34 Jefferson Draft Close Read
26:09 Leibniz Happiness Principle
29:12 Bolingbroke Patriot King
32:05 Colonial Influencers Wythe Wilson
38:04 Jefferson and French Myth
41:48 Franklin Promotes Bolingbroke
43:16 Next Class Preview
43:53 Theology and Philosophy Terms
46:05 Metaphysics Explained
48:04 Stuart Succession Timeline
50:28 Glorious Revolution and Banking
53:15 Swift Attacks Newton and Locke
56:33 Colbert and French Development
58:31 Leibniz at Paris Academy
01:00:50 Bolingbroke Networks and Culture
01:04:59 Brothers Club in the Colonies
01:08:15 Orrey Planetarium and Astronomy
01:11:54 Leibniz on Music and Poetry
01:13:33 Pope and Popular Optimism
01:16:11 Voltaire’s Counterattack
01:18:50 Modern Ridicule and Wrap-Up
Image credits:
Portrait of Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke by W.T. Evy
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_St_John,_Viscount_Bolingbroke.jpg
Credit: Photo, James Smith Noel Collection,
http://www.jamessmithnoelcollection.org/images/bolingbroke.jpg
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gottfried_Wilhelm_von_Leibniz_(2).jpg
Credit: The Open Court (1908)
https://www.flickr.com/people/126377022@N07
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#6
Etching of George Wythe Reads Report Rules (at Constitutional Convention)
https://wythepedia.wm.edu/index.php?title=File:GeorgeWytheReadsReportRules.jpg#fil
Credit: United States Postal Service.
#12
Bank of Amsterdam (formerly City Hall)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saenredam_-_Het_oude_stadhuis_te_Amsterdam.jpeg
Credit: Photo, .rijksmuseum.nl
#13
Painting of Colbert Presenting the Members of the Royal Academy of Sciences to Louis XIV in 1667 by Henri Testelin, Museum of the History of France
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colbert_Presenting_the_Members_of_the_Royal_Academy_of_Sciences_to_Louis_XIV_in_1667.PNG#mw-jump-to-license
Credit: Photo, Grand Palais RmnPhoto,
https://www.photo.rmn.fr/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&IID=2C6NU0HSUWLJ
#16
Grand orrery in Putnam Gallery, used in 1767 by John Winthrop to teach astronomy at Harvard
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grand_orrery_in_Putnam_Gallery,_2009-11-24.jpg
Credit: Photo, Sage Ross,
http://ragesoss.com/