Tea Party references in American history

This is a very short summary of an interesting op-ed piece from the NYtimes.

During the Revolution and the first decades of the 18th century, the Boston Tea Party was almost universally frowned upon. But as time passed and the possibility of suing the perpetrators faded, the rebellious Patriots' act came to symbolize the American spirit of fighting for freedom and even a model of civil disobedience . All sides used the historical event to bolster their opinion : from the governor of South Carolina who threatened to seceed during the 1831 nullifcation crisis to abolitionnists openly flouting the Fugitive Slave Act and the Temperance movement activists who ransacked saloons.

John J. Miller, the author of the article, argues that today's Tea Party movement might have a better grasp on American history than most of its critics think and that they are the latest incarnation of a deep trend running through American politics. Reading the comments on the article is also full of insight on the possible bias of the author. What do you think? Is he really supporting the modern Tea Party movement by exploring how

The NYTimes is also running a series this month on the Civil War entitled Disunion. You can even join their facebook group for those of you who spend time on the social network.

There is also a good article on Southern women in the secession crisis. They are reported to have supported secession en masse, thus challenging traditional gender roles by errupting into the public sphere. Again reading the comments is quite enlightening on the diversity of the readership!

Some have argued however that the South later lost the war partly because women lost faith in the cause, were dispirited by the suffering entailed by the war and communicated this loss of morale to their male relatives.

David Blight on the Civil War

David Blight's lectures on the civil war are incredibly interesting and I would recommend listening to them. You can download them from i-tunes or from Yale's website. The transcripts are also available.

For a good summary of his research into the memory of the civil war : listen to this lecture.

Here's David Blight telling the story of two slaves that escaped from the South during the Civil War. It's a great example of the nature of historical inquiry.

SEMINAR 4

The two lectures I'd like you to listen to were given by Jennifer Burns at Berkeley:

• Immigrant culture
• Meaning of whiteness.

You can download them from the Berkeley website.

You can get them from i-tunes by typing "History 7B Berkeley" in the search engine, or by browsing through i-tunes U.

The two lectures were also on the memory sticks that I circulated in class, so some of you already have them on your computers.

PS : An excellent article on the Tea Party from the liberal magazine The New Republic. I found the first ( and so far only) comment particularly perceptive. For the mediatic row over "the elites", see the original article in the Washington Post and one of the reactions it provoked.

Bill of rights

Here is a very good example of the current significance of the Bill of Rights :




This is an extract from The West Wing, season 6, episode 8 (In the room)

I whole heartedly reccomend this TV series which is amazing : you'll learn a lot about the American constitution, the political workings of the institutions and the hot potato issues of the 2000s, and painlessly to boot.

Seminar 3

To help you answer the third question for SEMINAR 3 : read about the Supreme Court's recent cases.

As mentionned last week, I've added an exercise on the Tea Party movement for seminar 3.

Please listen to the BBC podcast from BBC's Americana series.

If you'd rather download the podcast, I've uploaded it here.

Answer these questions briefly :

1. Summarize the Tea-Party activists' platform.

2. How do they view the Constitution ?

3. What does Professor Jill Lepore say about this?

for more on the Tea Party movement :

• a very brief presentation of Jill Lepore's book click here
• a very long article in the New Yorker
• coverage by NPR on religion and the Tea Party Movement

Note :

Fiscal conservative = against high taxes and the deficit and opposed to government spending to fund social services.

Social conservative= against abortion, gay marriage, secularization of American society (bans on school prayers etc...)

Tea Party, past and present

Today a national group of anti-tax, anti-Big Government and anti-incumbent activists has coalesced under the banner of the Tea Party Movement in reference to the original Boston Tea Party of 1775. ( For more information on this, you may check my earlier posts on this : http://americanstudiesyear2.blogspot.com/2010/03/right-wing-extremism-in-us.html

These vocal critics of the governement have been referring to the American founders in their wish to take power back, that is away from the federal government. They have used the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence to argue for a return to the original American institutional framework. Was the Constitution truly the work of people who distrusted the State and favoured democracy?

The Economist offers an interesting study of the constitutional rhetoric of these Tea Party activists : The perils of Constitution worship. This passage is particularly relevant :

But many of the tea-partiers have invented a strangely ahistorical version of it. For example, they say that the framers’ aim was to check the central government and protect the rights of the states. In fact the constitution of 1787 set out to do the opposite: to bolster the centre and weaken the power the states had briefly enjoyed under the new republic’s Articles of Confederation of 1777.

If we look back to the debates about the Constitution and the nationwide discussion that took place during the nine month ratification process, it is pretty clear that the Constitution was defended by a group of people who wanted a powerful central government.

Today's Tea Party movement would certainly have sided with the Anti-Federalists who argued against ratification. Our "modern-day anti-federalists" have picked a strange fight !

Book has arrived at the FNAC

Dear students,

Just a quick notice to tell you that Melinda Tims' book has arrived at the FNAC Cergy. I've ordered 30 copies and warned the salesperson that there were about 80 students. She will order more as the stock gets depleted.