Ask any American to name the primary concept that founded and shaped the United States, and liberty will be the most likely answer. But in a forthcoming book that radically reexamines American history, DePaul University Political Science Professor James E. Block argues that it is agency, and not liberty, that defines the United States.

     What is agency? "The legal definition of an agent is someone who acts with self reliance and initiative but doesn't work for himself-he works for a larger principle," said Block, who is an attorney as well as a professor.

     "What I found in my research is a complex relationship between liberty and self-constraint in American history," he said. "We've ignored self-constraint as being an important part of the ideas that founded our country because we have been so taken with and enthusiastic about liberty. But what holds us together as a nation is the combination of the two, which is the concept of agency."

     Block's book, "A Nation of Agents," due for publication in the spring of 2001, explores the tense relationship between liberty and service to a common cause in America through an examination of 400 years of culture, philosophy, political theory and religious thought that has molded our nation. A political science professor at DePaul for 20 years, Block, 53, of Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, traces the origins of agency to the writings of the Puritans. "The Puritans came to New World for freedom, but they also were dedicated to serving God," Block said.

     Perhaps Block's most startling research focuses on a reinterpretation of the meaning of the American Revolution.

     "The traditional interpretation of the Declaration of Independence has set us on the wrong foot and led us to more than 200 years of misunderstanding the American Revolution as a fight for freedom and liberty," Block said. Instead, behind the rhetoric of the document written to unite the colonists is the concept of agency-a dedication to the collective principals of Anglo- American Protestantism, Block argues.

     Block, who began the book while teaching at DePaul, submitted his research as his dissertation while studying for his doctoral degree at the University of Chicago (U of C). He earned his Ph.D. in 1998 from the university's Committee on Social Thought program based on the strength of his work.

     The New York Times on Jan. 1 chose Block's work as one of a handful of scholarly research projects that offer "fresh insights" on our world in the new millennium. Block's doctoral advisor, U of C professor emeritus Martin E. Marty, told the newspaper that Block's research is "tour de force" that provides a "radical rethinking of American traditions." Marty noted that Americans should "get used to the word agency alongside liberty when reckoning with American life."

     Block said discussions with students and faculty at DePaul about the concepts of liberty and agency inspired him to write the book. "I owe an enormous debt to the political science professors whose conversations helped shape the book and to the students whose classroom discussions with me contributed enormously to its development."

Editor's Note: Reporters interested in interviewing Block can reach him at DePaul at 773/325-7334 or at home at 773/373-1974.