The Significance of the Early Republic

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The Significance of the Early Republic
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1780s-1830s
Neglected Period in History Political
Institutions Established Political Parties
Developed Political Economy Worked Out Nationalism
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Progressive Generation
-those historians whose assumptions about reality
came out of the Progressive era at the beginning
of the twentieth century-
American history as a conflict between a populist
majority, usually agrarian, against a narrow
aristocratic or business minority Seesawing
struggle between Hamiltonians
Jeffersonians Dominant paradigm until WWII
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Post WWII Generation
Denied the extent of change that took place in
the Colonial period. High Suffrage Churches
Disestablished Pseudo-Aristocracy Not really a
revolution but a mental shift
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Reevaluation of Jacksonian Era
Jacksonians had less unfinished business to deal
with than historians use to think. Society also
seemed less egalitarian and democratic than
earlier historians thought. Edward
Pessen (1981) Distribution of wealth more
unequal the era of the uncommon man
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Revisionist History of the 1980s
Society Culture not prominent men became the
subjects of historians
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Womens History
Role of women in the era of the early Republic
were changing patriarchy in disarray New ideals
of womanhood New divisions of labor in the
household
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New Periodizations
1763 or 1780 to 1830 1740 or 1750 to 1840
Historiographical Revolution
Restructuring Periods
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Liberal Capitalism
18th century Americans not born liberal New
England farmers appear medieval in
outlook Liberal capitalism modernity not
ascribed it seems, they had to be
achieved. America a hierarchical patriarchal
society that was vertically not horizontally
organized by kinship and patron-client
relationships.
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These studies stress more and more the
fundamental difference between the old
aristocratic pre-revolutionary society and the
new popular commercial society that emerged in
the nineteenth century