Governed by a Spirit of Opposition: The Origins of American Political Practice in Colonial Philadelphia - Rilegato

Roney, Jessica Choppin

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1421415275 ISBN 13: 9781421415277

Casa editrice: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr, 2015

Riassunto

During the colonial era, ordinary Philadelphians played an unusually active role in political life. Because the city lacked a strong central government, private individuals working in civic associations of their own making shouldered broad responsibility for education, poverty relief, church governance, fire protection, and even taxation and military defense. These organizations dramatically expanded the opportunities for white men—rich and poor alike—to shape policies that immediately affected their communities and their own lives.

In Governed by a Spirit of Opposition, Jessica Choppin Roney explains how allowing people from all walks of life to participate in political activities amplified citizen access and democratic governance. Merchants, shopkeepers, carpenters, brewers, shoemakers, and silversmiths served as churchwardens, street commissioners, constables, and Overseers of the Poor. They volunteered to fight fires, organized relief for the needy, contributed money toward the care of the sick, took up arms in defense of the community, raised capital for local lending, and even interjected themselves in Indian diplomacy. Ultimately, Roney suggests, popular participation in charity, schools, the militia, and informal banks empowered people in this critically important colonial city to overthrow the existing government in 1776 and re-envision the parameters of democratic participation.

Governed by a Spirit of Opposition argues that the American Revolution did not occasion the birth of commonplace political activity or of an American culture of voluntary association. Rather, the Revolution built upon a long history of civic engagement and a complicated relationship between the practice of majority-rule and exclusionary policy-making on the part of appointed and self-selected constituencies.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

"Governed by a Spirit of Opposition is a stimulating piece of work and an exceptional piece of scholarship.... [I]t could act as a model for future scholarship on colonial politics."

(Christopher F. Minty The Junto)

"The book is a good companion to those town studies of a half century ago, but it is also an important social history that takes us to new levels of inquiry into the economy and culture of eighteenth-century urban life."

(William and Mary Quarterly)

"Governed by a Spirit of Opposition is tightly organized and narratively driven. Its compact length will make it accessible in both graduate and undergraduate classrooms, while scholars of Philadelphia, civi life, and both the colonial and revolutionary eras will appreciate this fresh interpretation of associational culture."

(Governed by a Spirit of Opposition)

"Giving us a wonderfully detailed examination of civil society and urban governance in eighteenth-century Philadelphia, Jessica Choppin Roney's Governed by a Spirit of Opposition reframes our understanding of public life in this corner of early America, and its place in the wider literature on the British Atlantic."

(John L. Brooke, The Ohio State University)

L'autore:

Jessica Choppin Roney is an assistant professor of early American history at Temple University.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1421415275
• ISBN 13: 9781421415277
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 252