Whither the Early Republic

by Larson, John Lauritz; Morrison, Michael A.

• ISBN13: 9780812219326
• ISBN10: 0812219325
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-08-10
• Publisher: Univ of Pennsylvania Pr

Summary

"The past fifteen years have seen a dramatic expansion in the scope of scholarship on the history of the early American republic. Whither the Early Republic consists of essays on all aspects of the culture and society of this period, including Indians and empire, the economy and the environment, slavery and culture, and gender and urban life. Penned by leading historians, the essays are arranged thematically to reflect areas of change and growth in the field." "Whither the Early Republic offers a wealth of tools for introducing a new generation of historians to the nature of the field and also to the wide array of possibilities that lie in the future for scholars of this fascinating period."--BOOK JACKET.

Author Biography

John Lauritz Larson is Professor of History and Michael A. Morrison is Associate Professor of History at Purdue University. They served as editors of the Journal of the Early Republic for ten and fourteen years, respectively.

Table of Contents

Introduction: What Is This Book?	1	(9)
Part I. Continental Possessions
Continental Possessions—Three Deepening Trends	10	(7)
ANDRÉS RESÉNDEZ
Whither the Rest of the Continent?	17	(9)
ELIZABETH A. FENN
Continental Drifts	26	(6)
JAMES F. BROOKS
Continental Crossings	32	(8)
ALAN TAYLOR
Part II. Pursuing Happiness
Liberal America/Christian America: Another Conflict or Consensus?	40	(8)
STEWART DAVENPORT
The View from the Farmhouse: Rural Lives in the Early Republic	48	(10)
CHRISTOPHER CLARK
The Limits of Homo Economicus: An Appraisal of Early American Entrepreneurship	58	(11)
BARBARA M. TUCKER AND KENNETH H. TUCKER, JR.
Economic Landscapes Yet to be Discovered: The Early American Republic and Historians' Unsubtle Adoption of Political Economy	69	(15)
JAMES L. HUSTON
Part III. Interactive Landscapes
Environmental Stewardship and Decline in Old New England	84	(8)
BRIAN DONOHUE
Re-Greening the South and Southernizing the Rest	92	(10)
MART A. STEWART
Mudslides Make Good History	102	(8)
CONEVERY BOLTON VALENCIUS
Down, Down, Down, No More: Environmental History Moves Beyond Declension	110	(8)
TED STEINBERG
Part IV. Commodification of People
The Vexed Story of Human Commodification Told by Benjamin Franklin and Venture Smith	118	(11)
DAVID WALDSTREICHER
Wages, Sin, and Slavery: Some Thoughts on Free Will and Commodity Relations	129	(10)
AMY DRU STANLEY
Commodified Freedom: Interrogating the Limits of Anti-Slavery Ideology in the Early Republic	139	(10)
STEPHANIE SMALLWOOD
The Pedestal and the Veil: Rethinking the Capitalism/Slavery Question	149	(11)
WALTER JOHNSON
Part V. Public, Private, and Spirit Worlds
Sex and Sexuality: The Public, the Private, and the Spirit Worlds	160	(9)
PATRICIA CLINE COHEN
Space in the Early American City	169	(8)
BERNARD HERMAN
A History of all Religions	177	(8)
LEIGH E. SCHMIDT
Questions, Suspicions, Speculations	185	(8)
DAVID S. SHIELDS
Afterword: The Quest for Universal Understanding	193	(8)
Index	201

Excerpts

"The past fifteen years have seen a dramatic expansion in the scope of scholarship on the history of the early American republic. Whither the Early Republic consists of essays on all aspects of the culture and society of this period, including Indians and empire, the economy and the environment, slavery and culture, and gender and urban life. Penned by leading historians, the essays are arranged thematically to reflect areas of change and growth in the field." "Whither the Early Republic offers a wealth of tools for introducing a new generation of historians to the nature of the field and also to the wide array of possibilities that lie in the future for scholars of this fascinating period."--BOOK JACKET.