Political Culture and Secession in Mississippi: Masculinity, Honor, and the Antiparty Tradition, 1830-1860Oxford University Press, 19/10/2000 - 280 páginas This groundbreaking study of the politics of secession combines traditional political history with current work in anthropology and gender and ritual studies. Christopher J. Olsen has drawn on local election returns, rural newspapers, manuscripts, and numerous county records to sketch a new picture of the intricate and colorful world of local politics. In particular, he demonstrates how the move toward secession in Mississippi was deeply influenced by the demands of masculinity within the state's antiparty political culture. Face-to-face relationships and personal reputations, organized around neighborhood networks of friends and extended kin, were at the heart of antebellum Mississippi politics. The intimate, public nature of this tradition allowed voters to assess each candidate's individual status and fitness for public leadership. Key virtues were independence and physical courage, as well as reliability and loyalty to the community, and the political culture offered numerous chances to demonstrate all of these (sometimes contradictory) qualities. Like dueling and other male rituals, voting and running for office helped set the boundaries of class and power. They also helped mediate the conflicts between nineteenth-century American egalitarianism, democracy, and geographic mobility, and the South's exaggerated patriarchal hierarchy, sustained by honor and slavery. The political system, however, functioned effectively only as long as it remained a personal exercise between individuals, divorced from the anonymity of institutional parties. This antiparty tradition eliminated the distinction between men as individuals and as public representatives, which caused them to assess and interpret all political events and rhetoric in a personal manner. The election of 1860 and success of the Republicans' antisouthern, free soil program, therefore, presented an "insulting" challenge to personal, family, and community honor. As Olsen shows in detail, the sectional controversy engaged men where they measured themselves, in public, with and against their peers, and linked their understanding of masculinity with formal politics, through which the voters actually brought about secession. Political Culture and Secession in Mississippi provides a rich new perspective on the events leading up to the Civil War and will prove an invaluable tool for understanding the central crisis in American politics. |
Índice
17 | |
An Episode from Mississippis Political CultureThe Secession Debate of 18491851 | 39 |
The Politics of Antipartyism | 55 |
Voters Elections and the Myth of Party Dominance | 71 |
Voting and Governing in the Neighborhood | 97 |
The Ritual Power of Politics | 121 |
KnowNothings and the Political Culture | 149 |
The Political Culture of Secession | 169 |
Methodological Notes and Study Data | 197 |
Notes | 207 |
Bibliography | 241 |
261 | |
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Political Culture and Secession in Mississippi: Masculinity, Honor, and the ... Christopher J. Olsen Pré-visualização limitada - 2000 |
Political Culture and Secession in Mississippi: Masculinity, Honor, and the ... Christopher J. Olsen Pré-visualização limitada - 2000 |
Political Culture and Secession in Mississippi: Masculinity, Honor, and the ... Christopher J. Olsen Pré-visualização limitada - 2000 |
Palavras e frases frequentes
activists American Amite County antebellum Archives and History ballots board of police Bolivar County Carroll County Claiborne Claiborne County constable contests convention county offices county’s court clerk Davis democracy Democrats Department of Archives district disunion DMcL duel early editor elite farmers Free Soil governor Harrison County Hinds County Hinds County Gazette historians inspectors insult issues Jackson Jacksonian Democracy Jasper County JFHC John justice Know-Nothings leaders legislature loyalty male man’s manhood manliness masculinity MDAH men’s Mississippi Mississippi Department Mississippi voters neighborhood neighbors newspapers nominations northern opponents partisan partisanship party organization party’s percent planters politicians polls Port Gibson Powhatan Ellis Quitman Record Group 28 Republican residents rhetoric ritual roll-off secession Second Party System Sept sheriff Slave Schedules Slaveowners slavery social State-Rights state’s tickets tion turnout typically Union Unionists Upper South Vicksburg violence vote Whig William Yazoo Yazoo County
Passagens conhecidas
Página 247 - Mississippi Scenes; or, Sketches of Southern and Western Life and Adventure, Humorous, Satirical, and Descriptive, including the Legend of Black Creek.
Referências a este livro
An American Aristocracy: Southern Planters in Antebellum Philadelphia Daniel Kilbride Pré-visualização limitada - 2006 |