Speaking Aristocracy - (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American Histo) by Christopher Grasso (Paperback)
About this item
Highlights
- As cultural authority was reconstituted in the Revolutionary era, knowledge reconceived in the age of Enlightenment, and the means of communication radically altered by the proliferation of print, speakers and writers in eighteenth-century America began to describe themselves and their world in new ways.
- Author(s): Christopher Grasso
- 524 Pages
- History, United States
- Series Name: Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American Histo
Description
About the Book
Speaking Aristocracy: Transforming Public Discourse in Eighteenth-Century ConnecticutBook Synopsis
As cultural authority was reconstituted in the Revolutionary era, knowledge reconceived in the age of Enlightenment, and the means of communication radically altered by the proliferation of print, speakers and writers in eighteenth-century America began to describe themselves and their world in new ways. Drawing on hundreds of sermons, essays, speeches, letters, journals, plays, poems, and newspaper articles, Christopher Grasso explores how intellectuals, preachers, and polemicists transformed both the forms and the substance of public discussion in eighteenth-century Connecticut.In New England through the first half of the century, only learned clergymen regularly addressed the public. After midcentury, however, newspapers, essays, and eventually lay orations introduced new rhetorical strategies to persuade or instruct an audience. With the rise of a print culture in the early Republic, the intellectual elite had to compete with other voices and address multiple audiences. By the end of the century, concludes Grasso, public discourse came to be understood not as the words of an authoritative few to the people but rather as a civic conversation of the people.
Review Quotes
[T]here have been many fine studies of eighteenth-century intellectual history, few are as sophisticated, as subtle, and as learned.
"Journal of American History"
ÝT¨here have been many fine studies of eighteenth-century intellectual history, few are as sophisticated, as subtle, and as learned.
"Journal of American History"
A hugely impressive book, with an engaging style and a nice eye for anecdote.
"Times Literary Supplement"
This book is a wonderful portrait of leadership and public discourse in the Revolutionary era.
Nathan O. Hatch, University of Notre Dame
"[T]here have been many fine studies of eighteenth-century intellectual history, few are as sophisticated, as subtle, and as learned.
"Journal of American History""
"A hugely impressive book, with an engaging style and a nice eye for anecdote.
"Times Literary Supplement""
"This book is a wonderful portrait of leadership and public discourse in the Revolutionary era.
Nathan O. Hatch, University of Notre Dame"
A significant contribution to our understanding of high culture in one place and time.
"Journal of the Early Republic"
Historians of public life throughout the early modern Atlantic world will want to explore his account.
"American Historical Review"
