Title Gentlemen revolutionaries : power and justice in the new American republic / Tom Cutterham

Published Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2017

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Description 1 online resource Contents Inheritance -- Obedience -- Justice -- Capital -- Rebellion Summary "In the years between the Revolutionary War and the drafting of the Constitution, American gentlemen--the merchants, lawyers, planters, and landowners who comprised the independent republic's elite--worked hard to maintain their positions of power. Gentlemen Revolutionaries shows how their struggles over status, hierarchy, property, and control shaped the ideologies and institutions of the fledgling nation. Tom Cutterham examines how, facing pressure from populist movements as well as the threat of foreign empires, these gentlemen argued among themselves to find new ways of justifying economic and political inequality in a republican society. At the heart of their ideology was a regime of property and contract rights derived from the norms of international commerce and eighteenth-century jurisprudence. But these gentlemen were not concerned with property alone. They also sought personal prestige and cultural preeminence. Cutterham describes how, painting the egalitarian freedom of the republic's 'lower sort' as dangerous licentiousness, they constructed a vision of proper social order around their own fantasies of power and justice. In pamphlets, speeches, letters, and poetry, they argued that the survival of the republican experiment in the United States depended on the leadership of worthy gentlemen and the obedience of everyone else. Lively and elegantly written, Gentlemen Revolutionaries demonstrates how these elites, far from giving up their attachment to gentility and privilege, recast the new republic in their own image"--Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes In English Print version record Subject Elite (Social sciences) -- United States -- History -- 18th century Power (Social sciences) -- United States -- History -- 18th century Upper class -- United States -- History -- 18th century Ideals (Philosophy) -- Political aspects -- United States -- History -- 18th century Social justice -- United States -- History -- 18th century Social status -- United States -- History -- 18th century Social control -- United States -- History -- 18th century HISTORY -- United States -- Revolutionary Period (1775-1800) HISTORY -- Revolutionary. HISTORY -- United States -- General. PHILOSOPHY -- Political. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- General. Elite (Social sciences) Politics and government Power (Social sciences) Social conditions Social control Social justice Social status Upper class SUBJECT United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140413 United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1789. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140414 United States -- Social conditions -- To 1865. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140512 Subject United States Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781400885213 1400885213

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