Dreams of a More Perfect Union

by Kersh, Rogan

• ISBN13: 9780801438127
• ISBN10: 0801438128
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-01-01
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

In a brilliantly conceived and elegantly written book, Rogan Kersh investigates the idea of national union in the United States. For much of the period between the colonial era and the late nineteenth century, he shows, "union" was the principal rhetorical means by which Americans expressed shared ideals and a common identity without invoking strong nationalism or centralized governance. Through his exploration of how Americans once succeeded in uniting a diverse and fragmented citizenry, Kersh revives a long-forgotten source of U.S. national identity.

Why and how did Americans perceive themselves as one people from the early history of the republic? How did African Americans and others at the margins of U.S. civic culture apply this concept of union? Why did the term disappear from vernacular after the 1880s? In his search for answers, Kersh employs a wide range of methods, including political-theory analysis of writings by James Madison, Frederick Douglass, and Abraham Lincoln and empirical analysis drawing on his own extensive database of American newspape

Author Biography

Rogan Kersh is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Maxwell School, Syracuse University.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction	1	(22)
The Rhetorical Genesis of American Political Union	23	(35)
A Theory of Political Union Emerges, 1780s-1820s	58	(46)
National Unity and Nation-Building, 1820s-1850s	104	(49)
Conceiving a More Moral Union, 1850s-1865	153	(45)
The Terms of Reunion	198	(44)
The Ends of Union, 1877-1898	242	(35)
Conclusion	277	(28)
Appendix	305	(6)
References	311	(40)
Index	351