The Varieties of Political Experience in Eighteenth-Century America / / Richard R. Beeman.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Pennsylvania Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Beeman, Richard R.,
• Place / Publishing House: Philadelphia : : University of Pennsylvania Press, , [2015]; ©2004
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Series: Early American Studies
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (376 p.) :; 25 illus.

On the eve of the American Revolution there existed throughout the British-American colonial world a variety of contradictory expectations about the political process. Not only was there disagreement over the responsibilities of voters and candidates, confusion extended beyond elections to the relationship between elected officials and the populations they served. So varied were people's expectations that it is impossible to talk about a single American political culture in this period.In The Varieties of Political Experience in Eighteenth-Century America, Richard R. Beeman offers an ambitious overview of political life in pre-Revolutionary America. Ranging from Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania to the backcountry regions of the South, the Mid-Atlantic, and northern New England, Beeman uncovers an extraordinary diversity of political belief and practice. In so doing, he closes the gap between eighteenth-century political rhetoric and reality.Political life in eighteenth-century America, Beeman demonstrates, was diffuse and fragmented, with America's British subjects and their leaders often speaking different political dialects altogether. Although the majority of people living in America before the Revolution would not have used the term "democracy," important changes were underway that made it increasingly difficult for political leaders to ignore "popular pressures." As the author shows in a final chapter on the Revolution, those popular pressures, once unleashed, were difficult to contain and drove the colonies slowly and unevenly toward a democratic form of government. Synthesizing a wide range of primary and secondary sources, Beeman offers a coherent account of the way politics actually worked in this formative time for American political culture.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. The Traditional Order of Politics in England and America -- 2. Eighteenth-Century Virginia: In Pursuit of the Deferential Ideal -- 3. The Character of the Good Ruler in Eighteenth-Century Massachusetts -- 4. Uneasy Oligarchs: The Manor Lords of Upstate New York -- 5. Complacent Oligarchs: The Merchant Planters of South Carolina -- 6. The Unsettling Political Cultures of the Backcountry: The Southern Backcountry -- 7. The Unsettling Political Cultures of the Backcountry: The Northern Frontier -- 8. The Paradox of Popular and Oligarchic Political Behavior in Colonial Pennsylvania -- 9. Toward Democratic Pluralism: The Politics of the Cities of the Northeast -- 10. The Unfinished Revolution in American Political Culture -- Appendix 1: Qualifications for Voting in North American Mainland Colonies, Circa 1770 -- Appendix 2: Days in Session of Colonial Assemblies, 1752-1756 -- Appendix 3: Average Number of Laws Enacted by Colonial Assemblies Across Selected Five-Year Periods -- Appendix 4: Average Number of Petitions Received Annually by Colonial Assemblies -- Appendix 5: Number of Assembly Elections per Decade -- Appendix 6: Average Turnover Rate of Legislators in North American Colonial Mainland Assemblies by Decade -- Notes -- Index -- Acknowledgments