- Referencia:
- I0100212910
- Editorial:
- OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS(UK)
- Any d'edició:
- 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198827979
- Sota demanda. Disponible en 2-3 dies per a la península
POLITICAL COMMUNITY IN REVOLUTIONARY PENNSYLVANIA, 1774-1800
KENNETH OWEN
Political Community in Revolutionary Pennsylvania challenges the ways we understand popular sovereignty in the American Revolution. Whereas previous histories place undue focus on elite political thought or analysis based on class, this study argues that it was ordinary citizens that caredmost about the establishment of a proper, representative, publicly legitimate political process. Popular activism constrained the options available to leaders and created a system through which the actions of government were made more representative of the will of the community. Political Communityin Revolutionary Pennsylvania analyzes political developments in Pennsylvania from 1774, when Americans united in opposition to Britain’s Intolerable Acts, through to 1800 and the election of Thomas Jefferson. It looks at the animating philosophy of the Pennsylvania state constitution of 1776, a’radical manifesto’ which espoused a vision of popular sovereignty in which government was devolved from the people only where necessary. Even when governmental institutions were necessary, their legitimacy rested on being able to clearly demonstrate that they operated on popular consent, expressedin a variety of forms of popular mobilization.