Beyond the Founders - by Jeffrey L Pasley & Andrew W Robertson & David Waldstreicher (Paperback)

About the Book

Beyond the Founders: New Approaches to the Political History of the Early American Republic

Book Synopsis

In pursuit of a more sophisticated and inclusive American history, the contributors to Beyond the Founders propose new directions for the study of the political history of the republic before the Civil War. In ways formal and informal, symbolic and tactile, this political world encompassed blacks, women, entrepreneurs, and Native Americans, as well as the Adamses, Jeffersons, and Jacksons, all struggling in their own ways to shape the new nation and express their ideas of American democracy.

Taking inspiration from the new cultural and social histories, these political historians show that the early history of the United States was not just the product of a few "founding fathers," but was also marked by widespread and passionate popular involvement; print media more politically potent than that of later eras; and political conflicts and influences that crossed lines of race, gender, and class.

Contributors:
John L. Brooke, The Ohio State University
Andrew R. L. Cayton, Miami University (Ohio)
Saul Cornell, The Ohio State University
Seth Cotlar, Willamette University
Reeve Huston, Duke University
Nancy Isenberg, University of Tulsa
Richard R. John, University of Illinois at Chicago
Albrecht Koschnik, Florida State University
Rich Newman, Rochester Institute of Technology
Jeffrey L. Pasley, University of Missouri, Columbia
Andrew W. Robertson, City University of New York
William G. Shade, Lehigh University
David Waldstreicher, Temple University
Rosemarie Zagarri, George Mason University

Review Quotes

"A valuable collection of essays that introduces a new way of looking at the political history of the early republic."
-- "The Pennsylvania Magazine of History & Biography"

"Further evidence that imaginative and relevant scholarship is giving political history a buzz. . . . An outstanding collection of lively, enlightening, and provocative essays."
-- "American Historical Review"

"This collection of invaluable essays comes as a welcome relief from the current cult of celebrity. [It] penetrates beyond the plethora of biographies of the Founding Fathers to demonstrate how the 'newest political history' broadens our understanding of the political character of the early republic."
-- "Journal of Southern History"

About the Author

Jeffrey L. Pasley is associate professor of history at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and author of "The Tyranny of Printers" Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic. Andrew W. Robertson is associate professor of history at Lehman College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and author of The Language of Democracy: Political Rhetoric in the U.S. and Britain, 1790-1900. David Waldstreicher is professor of history at Temple University and author of Runaway America: Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the American Revolution.