The Man of the People: National Politics and the Origins of the Presidential Republic, 1787-1809

Date of Award

Winter 12-15-2013

Author's School

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Author's Department

History

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Type

Dissertation

Abstract

This dissertation examines the creation of the presidency as a national symbol of participatory civic engagement. It argues that early public critics of the Washington and Adams administrations--not the presidential administrations themselves--looked to the presidency to articulate the more egalitarian, democratic republican society they envisioned, repudiating the more stratified, hierarchical politics preferred by the first Presidents and their political allies. In so doing, this political opposition made the presidency the core symbol of the nation's democratic republic.

Language

English (en)

Chair and Committee

David T Konig

Committee Members

Iver Bernstein, Elizabeth Borgwardt, Randall Calvert, Wayne Fields, Peter J Kastor, Jeffrey L Pasley

Comments

Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/K7J964BQ

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