Synopses & Reviews
In
Columbia Rising, Bancroft Prize-winning historian John Brooke explores the struggle within the young American nation over the extension of social and political rights after the Revolution. By closely examining the formation and interplay of political structures and civil institutions in the upper Hudson Valley, Brooke traces the debates over who should fall within and outside of the legally protected category of citizen.
The story of Martin Van Buren--kingpin of New York's Jacksonian "Regency," president of the United States, and first theoretician of American party politics--threads the narrative, since his views profoundly influenced American understandings of consent and civil society and led to the birth of the American party system.
Brooke masterfully imbues local history with national significance, and his analysis of the revolutionary settlement as a dynamic and unstable compromise over the balance of power offers an ideal window on a local struggle that mirrored the nationwide effort to define American citizenship.
Review
"John Brooke's Columbia Rising is a tour de force. Consolidating and developing some of the most compelling themes in recent scholarship on the early republic, Brooke brings the 'public sphere' down to earth, offering a deeply grounded approach to the study of political culture and history that will transform the field. Columbia Rising is a magnificent achievement."--Peter S. Onuf, University of Virginia
Review
"Brooke's history of the rise of a post-Revolutionary civil society mobilizes a cast of thousands to illustrate how subjects were transformed into citizens. With amazingly deep research, he includes those outside the borders of formal political participation--women, blacks, slaves, poor tenant farmers--to show how some fostered an autonomous public presence for themselves."--Patricia Cline Cohen, University of California, Santa Barbara
Review
"Must reading for anyone interested in the period. . . . Brooke marshals a daunting array of primary and secondary sources as he explores the forging of citizenship, consent, and deliberation from the contested revolutionary settlement to the rise of political parties. Brooke's complex argument, always alive to contradiction, nuance, and irony, trumps previous grand narratives of decline or triumphalism. A major new interpretive synthesis,
Columbia Rising combines richly textured history with brilliant analysis.--Ron Formisano, University of Kentucky
Synopsis
Brooke explores the struggle within the young American nation over the extension of social and political rights after the Revolution. By closely examining the formation and interplay of political structures and civil institutions in the upper Hudson Valley, Brooke traces the debates over who should fall within and outside of the legally protected category of citizen. The story of Martin Van Buren threads the narrative, since his views profoundly influenced American understandings of consent and civil society and led to the birth of the American party system. Brooke's analysis of the revolutionary settlement as a dynamic and unstable compromise over the balance of power offers a window to a local struggle that mirrored the nationwide effort to define American citizenship.
Synopsis
Brooke explores the struggle within the young American nation over the extension of social and political rights after the Revolution. By closely examining the formation and interplay of political structures and civil institutions in the upper Hudson Valley, Brooke traces the debates over who should fall within and outside of the legally protected category of citizen. The story of Martin Van Buren threads the narrative, since his views profoundly influenced American understandings of consent and civil society and led to the birth of the American party system. Brooke's analysis of the revolutionary settlement as a dynamic and unstable compromise over the balance of power offers a window to a local struggle that mirrored the nationwide effort to define American citizenship.
About the Author
John L. Brooke is Humanities Distinguished Professor of History at Ohio State University. He has won the Bancroft Prize for The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844.