Liberty on the Waterfront : : American Maritime Culture in the Age of Revolution / / Paul A. Gilje.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn Press eBook Package American History
• VerfasserIn: Gilje, Paul A.,
• Place / Publishing House: Philadelphia : : University of Pennsylvania Press, , [2012]; ©2004
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Series: Early American Studies
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (360 p.) :; 43 illus.
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Contents --; Preface --; PART I. ASHORE AND AFLOAT --; 1 The Sweets of Liberty --; 2 The Maid I Left Behind Me --; 3 A Sailor Ever Loves to Be in Motion --; PART II. REVOLUTION --; 4 The Sons of Neptune --; 5 Brave Republicans of the Ocean --; 6 Free Trade and Sailors' Rights --; PART III. LEGACY --; 7 Proper Objects of Christian Compassion --; 8 The Ark of the Liberties of the World --; Epilogue --; Glossary --; Notes --; Index --; Acknowledgments
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9780812202021; 9783110413496; 9783110413458; 9783110459548
• DOI: 10.9783/9780812202021
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Paul A. Gilje.

Through careful research and colorful accounts, historian Paul A. Gilje discovers what liberty meant to an important group of common men in American society, those who lived and worked on the waterfront and aboard ships. In the process he reveals that the idealized vision of liberty associated with the Founding Fathers had a much more immediate and complex meaning than previously thought.In Liberty on the Waterfront: American Maritime Culture in the Age of Revolution, life aboard warships, merchantmen, and whalers, as well as the interactions of mariners and others on shore, is recreated in absorbing detail. Describing the important contributions of sailors to the resistance movement against Great Britain and their experiences during the Revolutionary War, Gilje demonstrates that, while sailors recognized the ideals of the Revolution, their idea of liberty was far more individual in nature-often expressed through hard drinking and womanizing or joining a ship of their choice.Gilje continues the story into the post-Revolutionary world highlighted by the Quasi War with France, the confrontation with the Barbary Pirates, and the War of 1812.