Search results for ""Author Paul A. Gilje""
University of Pennsylvania Press Liberty on the Waterfront: American Maritime Culture in the Age of Revolution
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.
£26.99
Johns Hopkins University Press American Artisans: Crafting Society Identity, 1750-1850
Given the fundamental changes that transformed American society in the years between Benjamin Franklin's apprenticeship in a printer's shop and mid-19th-century efforts to organize labouring men and women, no social group offers a more interesting spectacle than skilled tradesmen or artisans. They came from various ethnic backgrounds (some worked in slavery), took their religion and politics seriously, lived mostly in cities but also in the countryside, and in many cases became pillars of their communities. This book examines the role of artisans in the American economy and society in the 18th and 19th centuries. Going beyond the traditional story of the decline of journeyman status, it explores a variety of themes loosely centred around opportunities in the developing economy. Indeed, many of these essays explore entrepreneurial ideals among many artisans competing in the marketplace. This collection also examines the interaction of race and the artisan economy in southern cities. It traces the economic relationships from father to son or between merchant and artisan, and explores the culture and politics of artisans, including religion, third-party politics, and the interaction of gender and reform.
£26.94
