Rufus King and the history of reading: The use of print in the early American republic
Item
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Title
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Rufus King and the history of reading: The use of print in the early American republic
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:8c094dfb61fa:11650
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identifier
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12221
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Creator
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Gary, David J.,
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Contributor
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Martin J. Burke
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Date
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2013
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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American history | Biographies | book history | Federalist Party | history of reading | marginalia | note taking and commonplace books | print culture
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Abstract
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This dissertation examines the reading history, book collecting, and the use of print by the early American politician and diplomat Rufus King. Over the course of his life, King collected a vast library of books, pamphlets, and maps, and deployed print as a political weapon over his forty-year public career. He read widely in history, philosophy, and law, but did not read as an intellectual trying to answer abstract questions; he read purposively in a lawyerly fashion to solve problems or construct political arguments. King was a pragmatic reader who appropriated texts for specific political intentions. Evidence of this appropriation can be found in the marginalia in his personal library, commonplace notebooks, and scrap notes in his archive. It is the argument of this dissertation that the private act of reading was often the first step in the political process and had public consequences. As a well-read Enlightenment figure who was an efficient organizer of information, it is essential to understand the management of his reading in order to grasp his Federalist politics.;An analysis of King's reading history opens up new understandings of his politics and demonstrates he had an overarching political program designed to promote the legitimacy of the new American nation among the older nations of the world. This dissertation focuses on the step before the emergence of national identity, the struggle to be accepted as a nation by the rest of the world. Several episodes in King's political career confirm his desire to acquire and defend national legitimacy, including his defense of the Jay Treaty (1795-1796), his diplomacy in Great Britain during the Napoleonic Wars (1796-1803), his promotion of free trade and reciprocity after the War of 1812, and his anti-slavery speeches during the Missouri Controversy (1819-1821). In all, private reading defined the way King viewed the world and played a prominent role in his public life. It allowed him to build his own identity and demonstrates a larger political project that previous work on King has not focused on.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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History
