Title Political culture and secession in Mississippi : masculinity, honor, and the antiparty tradition, 1830-1860 / Christopher J. Olsen

Published Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2000

Click on the following:
EBSCO eBooks
ProQuest Ebook Central

Copies

Description 1 online resource (viii, 266 pages) : illustrations, 1 map Contents Introduction; 1 A SAVAGE PLACE: The Mississippi Frontier, Masculinity, and Political Culture in the 1830s; 2 EARLY AUTUMN: An Episode from Mississippi's Political Culture-The Secession Debate of 1849-1851; 3 MORTAL STAKES: The Politics of Antipartyism; 4 SMALL VICES: Voters, Elections, and the Myth of Party Dominance; 5 PLAYMATES: Voting and Governing in the Neighborhood; 6 CEREMONY: The Ritual Power of Politics; 7 CHANCE: Know-Nothings and the Political Culture; 8 VALEDICTION: The Political Culture of Secession; Appendix: Methodological Notes and Study Data; Notes; Bibliography IndexA; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R; S; T; U; V; W; Y Summary Political Culture and Secession in Mississippi explores the connections between gender, honour, and electoral politics, and argues that secession resulted from the demands and implications of masculinity within the state's antiparty political culture. Using evidence from local election returns, rural newspapers, manuscripts, and numerous county records, the work sketches a new picture of the varied and colourful world of local politics. It also advances a model of political culture that draws from several disciplines, mixing social science and traditional political history with anthropology and gender and ritual studies.; Mississippi's political culture evolved as a system that relied on face-to-face relationships and personal reputation, organized around neighbourhood networks of friends and extended kin. The intimate, public nature of this local setting allowed voters to assess each candidate's individual status and fitness for public leadership. Above all other masculine virtues, men valued independence and physical courage, but also reliability and loyalty to community. The political culture offered numerous chances to demonstrate all of these (sometimes contradictory) qualities, and like duelling and other male rituals, voting and running for office helped set the boundaries of class and power. It mediated between the conflicting values of nineteenth-century American egalitarianism and democracy and the South's exaggerated patriarchal hierarchy, which was sustained by honour and slavery.; But the political system functioned effectively only as long as it remained a personal exercise between individuals, divorced from the bureaucratic anonymity of institutional parties. Therefore, the state's dominant political culture was its local, fiercely loyal antiparty tradition that conflated the distinction between men as individuals and as public leaders or representatives. This turned all political conflict into a personal exchange, and explains why Mississippians assessed rhetoric in any public context as a real or potential insult. The political culture, then, dictated men's visceral reaction to the Republicans' anti-Southern free soil programme. Although Republicanism violated their sense of home, the exaggeration and violence of their reaction sprang from their non-institutional political culture. 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 Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-260) and index Notes Print version record Subject Political culture -- Mississippi -- History -- 19th century Political parties -- Mississippi -- History -- 19th century Secession -- Mississippi SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural. POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture. Political culture Political parties Politics and government Secession SUBJECT Mississippi -- Politics and government -- To 1865. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85086197 Subject Mississippi Genre/Form History Form Electronic book LC no. 99049213 ISBN 9780195131475 0195131479 9780195351262 0195351266 1280472758 9781280472756 9786610472758 6610472750

  Permalink