Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126
Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127
In the edited book, Beyond the Founders, the contributing essayists work towards a new idea of bridging the gap between political and social history. The introduction provides a solid background for the past and current discussion within the field of political history. The book is brilliantly laid out in themes with the essays within each theme conversing with each other. The individual essays unique and thought provoking and I didn’t find any essay to be detracting from the book at all. I can honestly say that this is quite possibly my favorite reading of the class so far. The authors of the essays took a subject that has had extensive study and brought new insights into the subjects by adding in the social history aspect. This was particularly true of the first themed section. The essays in this theme used the oddity of a political event to bring into discussion how the populace, even those without a vote, were able to make their voices heard and their opinions count in the political discourse of the day. They looked at the community rituals around the election process and how the voice of the marginalized could sometimes make an impact on the race. The essays also looked at the different ways women and people of color could make their opinions count and known in the political sphere.
Interestingly, throughout the book the gendered language that politicians and newspaper editors used to either glorify or denigrate a candidate or political party. This is especially true on the essay that I found most interesting, the Essay on Aaron Burr. I found that his essay provided some interesting insight into the gendered language used to fight against Burr’s popularity. This unrelenting attack of gender/sexuality bias helped to bring Burr down in the political world.
I found the book intriguing in how it brought to mind Slavery’s Capitalism. With Slavery’s Capitalism, the essays took a subject not many historians would enjoy and made interesting and unique arguments that were sustained with excellent writing. As Victoria wrote in her post on Slavery’s Capitalism this book also forces the class as readers to “rethink.” Not just slavery, but the political party process and development as a whole. Beyond the Founders, does the exact same thing. Only instead of taking a subject many historians struggle with, the editors and authors took a subject that many historians know has been well researched, especially from the top down and began the process of providing new and interesting arguments within their essays. It also brought back interesting concepts from Closer to Freedom in how the discussion of clothing could bring a sense of status.
I was surprised that I found Chapter 8 extremely interesting. Like the author, John L. Brooke states in his opening paragraph, I like many historians often shy away from theory. This essay really had me interested and I felt that the look into theories driven around the public sphere interesting and challenging. It was one of the essays that I wanted to finish before taking a break during my reading process. The discussion on persuasion and its varied meaning was fascinating.