Synopses & Reviews
"On rare occasions, an anthology comes along that reshapes scholarship in an entire field. The Democratic Experiment shows how to join culture and class, elections and the growth of the state, taxes and political theory into a fresh, unromantic understanding of power in the public sphere. With this splendid volume, a new political history has finally come of age."--Michael Kazin, author of The Populist Persuasion: An American History
"Political history is back. In a whirlwind of pent-up energy, this volume announces that questions about governmental capacity, suffrage and citizenship, sedition, constitutional amendment, court reform, inflation and consumerism, interest group electioneering, local government experimentation, antitax and antibussing revolts, the role of liberalism, and the partisan politics of family values are (and must be) on the agenda of historians. Its long-awaited return from the desert finds it better and stronger, more nuanced and inclusive, than before its exile. Readers will rejoice."--Elizabeth Sanders, author of Roots of Reform: Farmers, Workers, and the American State 1887-1917
"Those who have wondered what the future holds for American political history need wonder no more. In form and exposition, in theory and practice, The Democratic Experiment gives all the notice one could want of the exciting new directions that the genre is taking, and introduces the scholars who are leading its renewal."--Christopher Tomlins, American Bar Foundation, Chicago
"This superb collection of essays bring a welcome sophistication to the historical study of American politics--its culture and institutions."--Joyce Appleby, author of Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans
"This is a terrific book--ambitious, iconoclastic, elegant, persuasive, exciting. The authors aim to reorient historians, rope in political scientists, and--at their most ambitious--reread America. They succeed on nearly every dimension. Each chapter raises issues that both historians and political scientists will be keen to engage. The collection adds up to a sustained, coherent whole, argued in many different keys and pitches. Very nice work indeed."--James A. Morone, Brown University, author of Hellfire Nation
"This book represents a job extremely well done. It offers a richer historical account of democratic conflicts than have most historically savvy political scientists. I particularly appreciate the attention to the nineteenth century, which is rarely explored in such depth among scholars of political history. Moreover, I do not think there is another volume that engages democratic conflict as comprehensively as does this one. The Democratic Experiment will enrich our understanding of liberal and democratic aspirations in America."--Sidney M. Milkis, University of Virginia, author of Political Parties and Constitutional Government
Review
"The present expansiveness and flexibility of political history are well represented in this collection of essays. The [book] should be quite useful in graduate seminars both general and topical."--Ronald P. Formisano, Journal of American History
Review
The present expansiveness and flexibility of political history are well represented in this collection of essays. The [book] should be quite useful in graduate seminars both general and topical. Ronald P. Formisano
Review
“Boundaries of the State in US History contains cutting edge work on the nature of the American state. It explains how the United States managed to accomplish complex goals, such as distributing its western lands, without an elaborate bureaucratic apparatus. The contributors to this widely ranging book force us to rethink our fundamental notions of the American state, such as its weakness in comparison with European and other states. This collection will become indispensable to political scientists and historians alike.”
Review
“This resonant collection explores the varieties and powers of the US national state by taking its boundaries and limits seriously. Generating striking insights across a range of fundamental subjects, its thoughtful overviews and absorbing essays offer readers fresh understanding of deep-seated connections between political authority and both domestic society and basic global patterns.”
Review
“This outstanding collection captures the full breadth of exciting new work on the American state. The essays challenge us to think in novel and creative ways about the binaries—state and society, republic and empire, public and private, federal and local—that have profoundly shaped historical writing on this institution. They powerfully advance our ability to comprehend the possibilities and perils of democratic statecraft across the entire span of US history. A major achievement.”
Synopsis
In a series of fascinating essays that explore topics in American politics from the nation's founding to the present day ,
The Democratic Experiment opens up exciting new avenues for historical research while offering bold claims about the tensions that have animated American public life. Revealing the fierce struggles that have taken place over the role of the federal government and the character of representative democracy, the authors trace the contested and dynamic evolution of the national polity.
The contributors, who represent the leading new voices in the revitalized field of American political history, offer original interpretations of the nation's political past by blending methodological insights from the new institutionalism in the social sciences and studies of political culture. They tackle topics as wide-ranging as the role of personal character of political elites in the Early Republic, to the importance of courts in building a modern regulatory state, to the centrality of local political institutions in the late twentieth century. Placing these essays side by side encourages the asking of new questions about the forces that have shaped American politics over time. An unparalleled example of the new political history in action, this book will be vastly influential in the field.
In addition to the editors, the contributors are Brian Balogh, Sven Beckert, Rebecca Edwards, Joanne B. Freeman, Richard R. John, Ira Katznelson, James T. Kloppenberg, Matthew D. Lassiter, Thomas J. Sugrue, Michael Vorenberg, and Michael Willrich.
Synopsis
"On rare occasions, an anthology comes along that reshapes scholarship in an entire field.
The Democratic Experiment shows how to join culture and class, elections and the growth of the state, taxes and political theory into a fresh, unromantic understanding of power in the public sphere. With this splendid volume, a new political history has finally come of age."
--Michael Kazin, author of The Populist Persuasion: An American History"Political history is back. In a whirlwind of pent-up energy, this volume announces that questions about governmental capacity, suffrage and citizenship, sedition, constitutional amendment, court reform, inflation and consumerism, interest group electioneering, local government experimentation, antitax and antibussing revolts, the role of liberalism, and the partisan politics of family values are (and must be) on the agenda of historians. Its long-awaited return from the desert finds it better and stronger, more nuanced and inclusive, than before its exile. Readers will rejoice."--Elizabeth Sanders, author of Roots of Reform: Farmers, Workers, and the American State 1887-1917
"Those who have wondered what the future holds for American political history need wonder no more. In form and exposition, in theory and practice, The Democratic Experiment gives all the notice one could want of the exciting new directions that the genre is taking, and introduces the scholars who are leading its renewal."--Christopher Tomlins, American Bar Foundation, Chicago
"This superb collection of essays bring a welcome sophistication to the historical study of American politics--its culture and institutions."--Joyce Appleby, author of Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans
"This is a terrific book--ambitious, iconoclastic, elegant, persuasive, exciting. The authors aim to reorient historians, rope in political scientists, and--at their most ambitious--reread America. They succeed on nearly every dimension. Each chapter raises issues that both historians and political scientists will be keen to engage. The collection adds up to a sustained, coherent whole, argued in many different keys and pitches. Very nice work indeed."--James A. Morone, Brown University, author of Hellfire Nation
"This book represents a job extremely well done. It offers a richer historical account of democratic conflicts than have most historically savvy political scientists. I particularly appreciate the attention to the nineteenth century, which is rarely explored in such depth among scholars of political history. Moreover, I do not think there is another volume that engages democratic conflict as comprehensively as does this one. The Democratic Experiment will enrich our understanding of liberal and democratic aspirations in America."--Sidney M. Milkis, University of Virginia, author of Political Parties and Constitutional Government
Synopsis
In a series of fascinating essays that explore topics in American politics from the nation's founding to the present day , The Democratic Experiment opens up exciting new avenues for historical research while offering bold claims about the tensions that have animated American public life. Revealing the fierce struggles that have taken place over the role of the federal government and the character of representative democracy, the authors trace the contested and dynamic evolution of the national polity.
The contributors, who represent the leading new voices in the revitalized field of American political history, offer original interpretations of the nation's political past by blending methodological insights from the new institutionalism in the social sciences and studies of political culture. They tackle topics as wide-ranging as the role of personal character of political elites in the Early Republic, to the importance of courts in building a modern regulatory state, to the centrality of local political institutions in the late twentieth century. Placing these essays side by side encourages the asking of new questions about the forces that have shaped American politics over time. An unparalleled example of the new political history in action, this book will be vastly influential in the field.
In addition to the editors, the contributors are Brian Balogh, Sven Beckert, Rebecca Edwards, Joanne B. Freeman, Richard R. John, Ira Katznelson, James T. Kloppenberg, Matthew D. Lassiter, Thomas J. Sugrue, Michael Vorenberg, and Michael Willrich.
Synopsis
In a series of fascinating essays that explore topics in American politics from the nation's founding to the present day ,
The Democratic Experiment opens up exciting new avenues for historical research while offering bold claims about the tensions that have animated American public life. Revealing the fierce struggles that have taken place over the role of the federal government and the character of representative democracy, the authors trace the contested and dynamic evolution of the national polity.
The contributors, who represent the leading new voices in the revitalized field of American political history, offer original interpretations of the nation's political past by blending methodological insights from the new institutionalism in the social sciences and studies of political culture. They tackle topics as wide-ranging as the role of personal character of political elites in the Early Republic, to the importance of courts in building a modern regulatory state, to the centrality of local political institutions in the late twentieth century. Placing these essays side by side encourages the asking of new questions about the forces that have shaped American politics over time. An unparalleled example of the new political history in action, this book will be vastly influential in the field.
In addition to the editors, the contributors are Brian Balogh, Sven Beckert, Rebecca Edwards, Joanne B. Freeman, Richard R. John, Ira Katznelson, James T. Kloppenberg, Matthew D. Lassiter, Thomas J. Sugrue, Michael Vorenberg, and Michael Willrich.
Synopsis
"On rare occasions, an anthology comes along that reshapes scholarship in an entire field.
The Democratic Experiment shows how to join culture and class, elections and the growth of the state, taxes and political theory into a fresh, unromantic understanding of power in the public sphere. With this splendid volume, a new political history has finally come of age."--Michael Kazin, author of
The Populist Persuasion: An American History"Political history is back. In a whirlwind of pent-up energy, this volume announces that questions about governmental capacity, suffrage and citizenship, sedition, constitutional amendment, court reform, inflation and consumerism, interest group electioneering, local government experimentation, antitax and antibussing revolts, the role of liberalism, and the partisan politics of family values are (and must be) on the agenda of historians. Its long-awaited return from the desert finds it better and stronger, more nuanced and inclusive, than before its exile. Readers will rejoice."--Elizabeth Sanders, author of Roots of Reform: Farmers, Workers, and the American State 1887-1917
"Those who have wondered what the future holds for American political history need wonder no more. In form and exposition, in theory and practice, The Democratic Experiment gives all the notice one could want of the exciting new directions that the genre is taking, and introduces the scholars who are leading its renewal."--Christopher Tomlins, American Bar Foundation, Chicago
"This superb collection of essays bring a welcome sophistication to the historical study of American politics--its culture and institutions."--Joyce Appleby, author of Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans
"This is a terrific book--ambitious, iconoclastic, elegant, persuasive, exciting. The authors aim to reorient historians, rope in political scientists, and--at their most ambitious--reread America. They succeed on nearly every dimension. Each chapter raises issues that both historians and political scientists will be keen to engage. The collection adds up to a sustained, coherent whole, argued in many different keys and pitches. Very nice work indeed."--James A. Morone, Brown University, author of Hellfire Nation
"This book represents a job extremely well done. It offers a richer historical account of democratic conflicts than have most historically savvy political scientists. I particularly appreciate the attention to the nineteenth century, which is rarely explored in such depth among scholars of political history. Moreover, I do not think there is another volume that engages democratic conflict as comprehensively as does this one. The Democratic Experiment will enrich our understanding of liberal and democratic aspirations in America."--Sidney M. Milkis, University of Virginia, author of Political Parties and Constitutional Government
Synopsis
The question of how the American state defines its powernot what it is” but what it doeshas become central to a range of historical discourses, from the founding of the Republic and the role of the educational system, to the functions of agencies and Americas place in the world. Here, James Sparrow, William J. Novak, and Stephen Sawyer assemble some definitional work in this area, showing that the state is an integral actor in physical, spatial, and economic exercises of power. They further imply that traditional conceptions of the state cannot grasp the subtleties of power and its articulation. Contributors include C.J. Álvarez, Elisabeth Clemens, Richard John, Robert Lieberman, Omar McRoberts, Gautham Rao, Gabriel Rosenberg, Jason Scott Smith, Tracy Steffes, and the editors.
About the Author
James T. Sparrow is associate professor of history and master of the Collegiate Social Sciences Division at the University of Chicago. He is the author of
Warfare State: World War II Americans and the Age of Big Government.
William J. Novak is the Charles F. and Edith J. Clyne Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. He is the author of
The People’s Welfare Law and editor of
The Democratic Experiment.
Stephen W. Sawyer is chair of the History Department and cofounder of the History, Law, and Society Program at the American University of Paris. He is the translator of Michel Foucault’s Wrong-Doing, Truth-Telling, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Table of Contents
CONTRIBUTORS ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii
CHAPTER ONE
The Democratic Experiment: New Directions in American Political History by Meg Jacobs and Julian E. Zelizer 1
CHAPTER TWO
Explaining the Unexplainable: The Cultural Context of the Sedition Act by Joanne B. Freeman 20
CHAPTER THREE
Affairs of Office: The Executive Departments, the Election of 1828, and the Making of the Democratic Party by Richard R. John 50
CHAPTER FOUR
The Legal Transformation of Citizenship in Nineteenth-Century America by William J. Novak 85
CHAPTER FIVE
Bringing the Constitution Back In: Amendment, Innovation, and Popular Democracy during the Civil War Era by Michael Vorenberg 120
CHAPTER SIX
Democracy in the Age of Capital: Contesting Suffrage Rights in Gilded Age New York by Sven Beckert 146
CHAPTER SEVEN
Domesticity versus Manhood Rights: Republicans, Democrats, and "Family Values "Politics,1856-1896 by Rebecca Edwards 175
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Case for Courts: Law and Political Development in the Progressive Era by Michael Willrich 198
CHAPTER NINE
"Mirrors of Desires":Interest Groups, Elections, and the Targeted Style in Twentieth-Century America by Brian Balogh 222
CHAPTER TEN
Pocketbook Politics: Democracy and the Market in Twentieth-Century America by Meg Jacobs 250
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The Uneasy Relationship: Democracy, Taxation, and State Building since the New Deal by Julian E. Zelizer 276
CHAPTER TWELVE
All Politics Is Local: The Persistence of Localism in Twentieth-Century America by Thomas J. Sugrue 301
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Suburban Strategies: The Volatile Center in Postwar American Politics by Matthew D. Lassiter 327
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
From Hartz to Tocqueville: Shifting the Focus from Liberalism to Democracy in America by James T Kloppenberg 350
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The Possibilities of Analytical Political History Ira Katznelson 381
INDEX 401