In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes - (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American Histo) by David Waldstreicher (Paperback)

About the Book

In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes: The Making of American Nationalism, 1776-1820

Book Synopsis

In this innovative study, David Waldstreicher investigates the importance of political festivals in the early American republic. Drawing on newspapers, broadsides, diaries, and letters, he shows how patriotic celebrations and their reproduction in a rapidly expanding print culture helped connect local politics to national identity. Waldstreicher reveals how Americans worked out their political differences in creating a festive calendar. Using the Fourth of July as a model, members of different political parties and social movements invented new holidays celebrating such events as the ratification of the Constitution, Washington's birthday, Jefferson's inauguration, and the end of the slave trade. They used these politicized rituals, he argues, to build constituencies and to make political arguments on a national scale. While these celebrations enabled nonvoters to participate intimately in the political process and helped dissenters forge effective means of protest, they had their limits as vehicles of democratization or modes of citizenship, Waldstreicher says. Exploring the interplay of region, race, class, and gender in the development of a national identity, he demonstrates that an acknowledgment of the diversity and conflict inherent in the process is crucial to any understanding of American politics and culture.

Review Quotes

"A pivotal work in American history that may help break down some of the generational and intellectual barricades that have gone up during the various historiographical revolutions of the past four decades. . . . [R]ich and varied."--William & Mary Quarterly

"An interesting study of how Americans developed both nationalism and political divisions at the same time . . . [and] how Americans in the early years of the Republic did more than just celebrate holidays: they reinvented them as needed in order to accomplish a variety of goals that went far beyond public commemoration and celebration. Anyone interested in the early history of the United States, the history of American journalism, or the development of American nationalism, will benefit from reading this book."--Georgia Historical Quarterly

"As excellent history always does, Waldstreicher relates the particular to the general in a creative, evocative, and persuasive manner. This book should be in all university, college, and public libraries."--Canadian Journal of History

"To the growing literature on nationalist ritual and festival in the early American republic we can now add David Waldstreicher's new book, and a welcome addition it is."--American Historical Review

"Waldstreicher's unusual angle of vision on the politics of the Revolution and early republic will hopefully stimulate further conversation on these formative years of the Republic."--Fides et Historia

"Wonderful [and] nuanced. . . . While never losing sight of the ideas which animated them, [Waldstreicher] has rightly given pride of place to the people from whose actions American nationalism sprung."--Canadian Review of American Studies

About the Author

David Waldstreicher is professor of history at Temple University.