Pregnant with future consequences: Political culture in revolutionary Massachusetts, 1774--1787.
Item
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Title
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Pregnant with future consequences: Political culture in revolutionary Massachusetts, 1774--1787.
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Identifier
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AAI3063799
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identifier
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3063799
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Creator
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Angelis, Angelo Theodore.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Carol Berkin
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Date
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2002
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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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History, United States | Political Science, General | American Studies
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Abstract
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This dissertation carries an unusual but very suggestive title---"Pregnant with Future Consequences." It originates in a quotation from Mercy Otis Warren, a major political and social critic and one of the first historians of the American Revolution. Warren used this term to refer to the year 1780 and the decade that followed, a decade that was punctuated by the end of the American Revolution and ratification of the U.S. Constitution. All historians agree with Mercy Warren that the period prior to 1787 was a critical era in American history. Most historians, however, see the political discourse of this period as one that is fixed in a national mold, as if the diverse debates at the state level were all addressing issues of central power, national government and federal constructions of sovereignty. Viewed from this perspective the era of state sovereignty becomes a neat---almost visionary---prelude and buildup to nationhood and the Constitution.;Using Massachusetts as a model, this dissertation argues that the transition from Revolution to Constitution can be viewed from an alternate perspective, the perspective of state sovereignty, using sources that reflect social and political change at the local level. From their first tentative steps in 1774 to their stubborn demise in 1787, the sovereign states served as the context and arena for political debate and action. This arena was heavily populated, not only by men with national or even statewide reputations, but also by new men who emerged from the cauldron of the Revolution to assume seats at every level of state and local government. In turn, politically active men and the state governments they supported, and just as often contested, served as the crucial link between the Revolution and the Constitution, carrying forward and simultaneously reshaping understandings of politics, government and society. Forged in the Revolutionary furnaces of the states, the transition in political culture was well advanced when the framers gathered in May 1787 at the statehouse in Philadelphia to design the structure of the new federal government.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
