{"product_id":"reading-the-early-republic-9780674022362","title":"Reading the Early Republic","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFerguson addresses the reconfiguration of charity in American life, the vital role of the classical ideal in projecting an unthinkable continental republic, the first manipulations of the independent American woman, and the troubled integration of civic and commercial understandings in the original claims of prosperity as national virtue.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese fine essays analyze U.S. texts from the 1760s through the 1820s so as to illustrate the forms of expression, assumptions, conflicts, and ambivalences of the era. The texts include a remarkably broad spectrum, from the canonical \u003ci\u003eCommon Sense\u003c\/i\u003e through slave narratives, notable court cases, popular novels, and the architecture of Monticello to \u003ci\u003eThe Last of the Mohicans\u003c\/i\u003e. Two common themes linking the essays are that the language 'was richer and more nuanced than their inheritors' understood, and that the current generation could benefit from careful reconsideration of those complexities that are the foundation of American life. Useful insights abound. -- R. P. Gildrie * Choice *\u003cbr\u003e[\u003ci\u003eReading the Early Republic\u003c\/i\u003e is best described as a cohesive collection of discrete essays designed to show that very close reading of selected texts and episodes can shed new light on our understanding of the Revolutionary era broadly conceived...It is written with remarkable clarity and moves along at a varied pace that never fails to engage us. \u003ci\u003eReading the Early Republic\u003c\/i\u003e is an innovative and distinguished contribution that enriches our understanding of the period. -- Michael Kammen * Law and History Review *\u003cbr\u003eFerguson aspires to give us a knowledge of the past that remembers the intrinsic difference of its vitality, yet does not leave us to the crises of our moment without a sense of \"answering relevance.\" -- Elisa Tamarkin * Early American Literature *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eReading the Early Republic\u003c\/i\u003e revisits some of the most emblematic words and texts of that period and brings to the fore some forgotten individuals and documents to produce a thoroughgoing historical analysis of the new nation. In the process, Ferguson develops a portrayal of the period that serves as a powerful corrective to recent histories that emphasize national unity and ideological familiarity...Ferguson has also written a book with a surprising degree of relevance, revealing his intentions to speak to an audience outside academia. -- Carolyn Eastman * New England Quarterly *\u003cbr\u003eA major contribution to literary and intellectual history, \u003ci\u003eReading the Early Republic\u003c\/i\u003e also serves as a brilliant and formidable rebuttal to those policy makers, judges, and lawyers who are currently raiding the early Republic in the hope of settling current debates by recovering the original meanings of founding texts...\u003ci\u003eReading the Early Republic\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates why the history of political writing and rhetoric constitutes an important and distinct discipline from the history of political thought. -- Eric Slauter * William and Mary Quarterly *\u003cbr\u003eRejecting what he regards as over-simplified interpretations of the period's literary output, Ferguson sets out to recover the variety of meanings that these texts conveyed to contemporaries. Drawing on a range of works, from those that have become canonical to those that have been marginalized, he finds that early republican writings were significantly more nuanced, complex and volatile than even the most sensitive critics have acknowledged. Ferguson proceeds to offer fresh readings of several different kinds of sources, including novels, pamphlets, journals, legal records, and slave narratives...\u003ci\u003eReading the Early Republic\u003c\/i\u003e is wide-ranging and insightful. Opening out the texts in this way adds a new dimension to our understanding of the essential fluidity, volatility and contested quality of the early republic. -- Keith Mason * History *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments    Introduction   1. The Earliness of the Early Republic   2. The Dialectic of Liberty   3. The Commonalities of Common Sense   4. Becoming American   5. The Forgotten Publius   6. Finding Rome in America   7. Gabriel's Rebellion   8. Jefferson at Monticello   9. Charity in the City of Brotherly Love   10. The Last Early Republican Text   Epilogue    Notes   Index","brand":"Harvard University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51359088935255,"sku":"9780674022362","price":26.96,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780674022362.jpg?v=1754123539","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/reading-the-early-republic-9780674022362","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}