Intellectual History Commons^™

Pulse - A Consultation, Barry J. Mauer

Barry Mauer

On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen killed 49 people and injured 53 at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida. We may never know or understand what was in Mateen’s mind, but we can situate his attack within the history of eliminationism in America. Islamist terrorism is just part of a larger phenomenon: right wing eliminationism. But despite centuries of right wing eliminationist words and deeds in the U.S., there is little or no mainstream recognition of the phenomenon. Instead, we are treated to more denial, more distraction, more obfuscation. Until we look this problem squarely in the face, it will …

Addressing America: George Washington's Farewell And The Making Of National Culture, Politics, And Diplomacy, 1796-1852, Jeffrey Malanson

Jeffrey J. Malanson

No abstract provided.

Philosophical & Institutional Innovations Of Kenyon Leech Butterfield And The Rhode Island Contributions To The Development Of Land Grant And Sea Grant Extension, Michael Rice, Sarina Rodrigues, Kate Venturini

Michael A Rice

Epilogue: Some Sober Second Thoughts, Christopher Hoebeke

Christopher H Hoebeke

No abstract provided.

The Road To Mass Democracy: Original Intent And The Seventeenth Amendment, Christopher Hoebeke

Christopher H Hoebeke

Until 1913 and passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, US senators were elected by state legislatures, not directly by the people. Progressive Era reformers urged this revision in answer to the corruption of state "machines" under the dominance of party bosses. They also believed that direct elections would make the Senate more responsive to popular concerns regarding the concentrations of business, capital, and labor that in the industrial era gave rise to a growing sense of individual voicelessness. Popular control over the higher affairs of government was thought to be possible, since the spread of information …

The Paradox Of Popular Sovereignty: An Introductory Essay, Christopher Hoebeke

Christopher H Hoebeke

No abstract provided.

The Biological Inferiority Of The Undeserving Poor, Michael B. Katz

Michael B. Katz

This article excavates the definition of poor people as biologically inferior. It not only documents its persistence over time but emphasizes three themes. First, the concept rises and falls in prominence in response to institutional and programmatic failure. It offers a convenient explanation for why the optimism of reformers proved illusory or why social problems remained refractory despite efforts to eliminate them. Second, its initial formulation and reformulation rely on bridging concepts that try to parse the distance between heredity and environment through a kind of neo-Lamarkianism. These early bridges invariably crumble. Third, hereditarian ideas always have been supported by …

Secular Damnation: Thomas Jefferson And The Imperative Of Race, Robert Forbes

Robert P Forbes

Race, we are told, is a “social construction.” If this is so, Thomas Jefferson was its principal architect. Jefferson consciously framed his only published book, Notes on the State of Virginia, to check the rising status of Africans and to combat growing critiques of slavery from America’s European friends. Jefferson did this by importing the slaveholder’s sense of slaves as chattel into an Enlightenment world view, providing a metaphysical foundation for prejudice by transmuting the traditional Christian concept of the saved vs. the damned into material and aesthetic terms. Recasting in quasi-scientific language the ancient doctrine of the mark …

A People's History Of Baseball, Mitchell J. Nathanson

Mitchell J Nathanson

Baseball is much more than the national pastime. It has become an emblem of America itself. From its initial popularity in the mid-nineteenth century, the game has reflected national values and beliefs and promoted what it means to be an American. Stories abound that illustrate baseball's significance in eradicating racial barriers, bringing neighborhoods together, building civic pride, and creating on the field of play an instructive civics lesson for immigrants on the national character. In A People's History of Baseball, Mitchell Nathanson probes the less well-known but no less meaningful other side of baseball: episodes not involving equality, patriotism, heroism, …

Religion And Revolution: A Historiographical Look At Christianity's Influence On The American Revolution, Cooper Pasque

Cooper Pasque

No abstract provided.

Evolution Of Ideas: The American Revolution's Impact On Evangelicalism In America, Cooper Pasque

Cooper Pasque

No abstract provided.

Libraries In Public Before The Age Of Public Libraries: Interpreting The Furnishings And Design Of Athenaeums And Other ‘Social Libraries,’ 1800-1860, Adam Arenson

Adam Arenson

Before public libraries became common in the United States, both elite and striving men sought out social libraries to read business newspapers, attend lectures, appreciate art and good company, and generally learn or relish in respectability. For single male clerks living in rented rooms, the library served as a crucial "third place," away from home and work, where sociability and education could flourish. This chapter describes how elements of the private library, the parlor, and the bookstore informed the furnishing and design of the social library. It reveals how the spaces were intended to be utilized--and what legacies remained for …

Lodge, Henry Cabot, Christopher Hoebeke

Christopher H Hoebeke

No abstract provided.

Lippmann, Walter, Christopher Hoebeke

Christopher H Hoebeke

No abstract provided.

I'Ll Take My Stand: The South And The Agrarian Tradition, Christopher Hoebeke

Christopher H Hoebeke

No abstract provided.

America The Virtuous: The Crisis Of Democracy And The Quest For Empire (2003), Christopher H. Hoebeke

Christopher H Hoebeke

No abstract provided.

"Nothing Done!”: The Poet In Early Nineteenth-Century American Culture, Jill Anderson

Jill E. Anderson

In this dissertation, I argue that early nineteenth-century American poets’ and readers’ interpretations of Romanticism shaped their understanding of the role poetry and its producers could play in a developing national culture. By examining the public careers and private sentiments of four male poets — William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, and Jones Very — I analyze how each reconciled poetic vocation with the moral and economic obligations associated with the attainment of manhood. I locate these poets and their critics within specific historical discourses of aesthetic reception and production, focusing on the tensions and overlaps between …

An American Generational Autobiography: Collective Identity In Malcolm Cowley's Exile's Return, John Hazlett

John D Hazlett

In the following chapter from Hazlett's book My Generation: Collective Autobiography and Identity Politics, the author argues that Malcolm Cowley's Exile's Return pioneered a new form of autobiographical narrative--the generational autobiography. Cowley's text relies for its underlying ideas of collective identity on generational theory, Marxism, and Emersoniansm.

The Futility Of Campaign Finance Reform: A Historical Perspective, Christopher H. Hoebeke

Christopher H Hoebeke

No abstract provided.

American Checks And Balances, A Brief Survey, Christopher Hoebeke

Christopher H Hoebeke

No abstract provided.

Democratizing The Constitution: The Failure Of The Seventeenth Amendment, Christopher H. Hoebeke

Christopher H Hoebeke

No abstract provided.

From The Corrupt Few To The Incompetent Many: Questionable Causes And Unintended Effects Of The Direct Election Of Senators, Christopher Hoebeke

Christopher H Hoebeke

, August 31-September 3, 1995.