San Antonio College Library

The Patrick Henry known to few Americans stands larger than life on the stage of our history. Only withinthe past couple of decades have historians begun to recognize that here was only one of the truly extraordinary men who lived and worked in that extraordinary time when the United States was emergin from the chaos of revolution.

The 1800 presidential election, the last great contest of the founding period, was so convulsive and so momentous for American democracy that Jefferson would later dub it "America's second revolution." America's first true presidential campaign gave birth to our two-party system and etched the lines of partisanship that have shaped American politics ever since. The contest featured two of our most beloved Founding Fathers, once warm friends, facing...

Perhaps, as is often noted, the American Revolution was not as convulsive or transforming as its French and Russian counterparts. Yet this sparkling analysis from Wood impressively argues that it was anything but conservative. The rebellion left fundamental institutions scathed. Wood pictures colonial society as overwhelmingly deferential--to king, to family patriarch, and to aristocrats--with "personal obligations and reciprocity that ran through...

What role did manhood play in early American politics? In A Republic of Men, Mark E. Kann argues that the American founders aspired to create a "republic of men" but feared that "disorderly men" threatened its birth, health, and longevity. Kann demonstrates how hegemonic norms of manhood - exemplified by "the Family Man," for instance - were deployed as a means of stigmatizing unworthy men, rewarding responsible men with citizenship, and empowering...

An ironic examination of the founding years of our country. Historian Ellis guides us through the decisive issues of the nation's founding, and illuminates the emerging philosophies, shifting alliances, and personal and political foibles of our now iconic leaders. He explains how the idea of a strong federal government, championed by Washington, was eventually embraced by the American people, the majority of whom had to be won over. And he details...

For more than two centuries, Americans have used words of sentiment and sympathy, passion and power to explain their country's unique democratic mission. Here Andrew Burstein examines the emotional dynamic and the metaphorically rich language which Americans developed to express their guiding principle: that the New World would improve upon the Old. "Feeling," he argues, was a political and cultural phenomenon, and in the impassioned rhetoric of "feeling"...

"The American Revolution swept away old certainties and forced revolutionaries to consider what it meant to be American. Andrew Trees examines four attempts to answer the question of national identity that Americans faced in the wake of the Revolution. Through the writings of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, Trees explores a complicated political world in which boundaries between the personal and the political were...