Declarations of Dependence The Long Reconstruction of Popular Politics in the South, 1861 1908

Downs, Gregory

ISBN 10: 0807834440 / ISBN 13: 9780807834442

Published by Univ of North Carolina Pr, 2011

About this Item

1st edition. 360 pages. 9.50x6.50x0.70 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # 0807834440

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Declarations of Dependence The Long Reconstruction of Popular Politics in the South, 1861 1908
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807834440
• ISBN 13: 9780807834442
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 0.66 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

In this highly original study, Gregory Downs argues that the most American of wars, the Civil War, created a seemingly un-American popular politics, rooted not in independence but in voluntary claims of dependence. Through an examination of the pleas and petitions of ordinary North Carolinians, Declarations of Dependence contends that the Civil War redirected, not destroyed, claims of dependence by exposing North Carolinians to the expansive but unsystematic power of Union and Confederate governments, and by loosening the legal ties that bound them to husbands, fathers, and masters.Faced with anarchy during the long reconstruction of government authority, people turned fervently to the government for protection and sustenance, pleading in fantastic, intimate ways for attention. This personalistic, or what Downs calls patronal, politics allowed for appeals from subordinate groups like freed blacks and poor whites, and also bound people emotionally to newly expanding postwar s

About the Author

Gregory P. Downs is assistant professor of history at the City College of New York. He is author of Spit Baths, a Flannery O'Connor Award-winning collection of short stories.