Whither the Early Republic : : A Forum on the Future of the Field / / ed. by John Lauritz Larson, Michael A. Morrison.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn Press eBook Package American History
• MitwirkendeR: Bolton Valenčius, Conevery,; Brooks, James F.,; Clark, Christopher,; Cline Cohen, Patricia,; Davenport, Stewart,; Donahue, Brian,; Fenn, Elizabeth A.,; Herman, Bernard,; Huston, James L.,; Johnson, Walter,; Lauritz Larson, John,; Morrison, Michael A .,; Reséndez, Andrés,; Schmidt, Leigh E.,; Shields, David S.,; Smallwood, Stephanie,; Stanley, Amy Dru,; Steinberg, Ted,; Stewart, Mart A.,; Taylor, Alan,; Tucker, Barbara M.,; Tucker, Kenneth H.,; Waldstreicher, David,
• HerausgeberIn: Larson, John Lauritz,; Morrison, Michael A.,
• Place / Publishing House: Philadelphia : : University of Pennsylvania Press, , [2012]; ©2005
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (216 p.)

Penned by leading historians, the specially-commissioned essays of Whither the Early Republic represent the most stimulating and innovative work being done on imperialism, environmental history, slavery, economic history, politics, and culture in the early Republic.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 innovative 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.Throughout the book, preeminent scholars act as guides for students to their areas of expertise. Contributors include Pulitzer Prize-winner Alan Taylor, Bancroft Prize-winner James Brooks, Christopher Clark, Ted Steinberg, Walter Johnson, Patricia Cline Cohen, David Waldstreicher, and more. These essays, all originally commissioned to appear in a special issue of the Journal of the Early Republic, explore a diverse array of subjects: the struggles for control of North America; the economic culture of the early Republic; the interactions of humans with plants, climate, animals, and germs; the commodification of people; and the complex intersections of politics and culture.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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction: What Is This Book? -- Part I. Continental Possessions -- Continental Possessions-Three Deepening Trends -- Whither the Rest of the Continent? -- Continental Drifts -- Continental Crossings -- Part II. Pursuing Happiness -- Liberal America/Christian America: Another Conflict or Consensus? -- The View from the Farmhouse: Rural Lives in the Early Republic -- The Limits of Homo Economicus: An Appraisal of Early American Entrepreneurship -- Economic Landscapes Yet to be Discovered: The Early American Republic and Historians' Unsubtle Adoption of Political Economy -- Part III. Interactive Landscapes -- Environmental Stewardship and Decline in Old New England -- Re-Greening the South and Southernizing the Rest -- Mudslides Make Good History -- Down, Down, Down, No More: Environmental History Moves Beyond Declension -- Part IV. Commodification of People -- The Vexed Story of Human Commodification Told by Benjamin Franklin and Venture Smith -- Wages, Sin, and Slavery: Some Thoughts on Free Will and Commodity Relations -- Commodified Freedom: Interrogating the Limits of Anti-Slavery Ideology in the Early Republic -- The Pedestal and the Veil: Rethinking the Capitalism/Slavery -- Part V. Public, Private, and Spirit Worlds -- Sex and Sexuality: The Public, the Private, and the Spirit Worlds -- Space in the Early American City -- A History of all Religions -- Questions, Suspicions, Speculations -- Afterword: The Quest for Universal Understanding -- Index