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Chapter 5 - American Democracy

From the Founders to Feminism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2024

David Wiles
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Summary

De Tocqueville helps us see American democracy as a way of life shaped by individualism and a dislike of theatrical display. In John Adams, the ideals of Protestant Christianity and Roman republicanism collided. Adams believed in personal integrity, but was unashamed to perform a social role, inspired by the Roman republican orator Cicero. In the nineteenth century Hugh Blair repositioned rhetoric as a way to speak truth, in a language that in practice confined truth-speaking to the elite. When working-class Irish Americans sought a more inclusive democracy, they found a symbolic representative in the actor Edwin Forrest, and many died in the ensuing riot outside a new opera house in 1849. Black Americans first found a public voice through the person of Frederick Douglass, whose oratory was founded both on preaching and on the old flamboyant republican tradition. Women first demanded a voice in the context of Quakerism and the campaign to abolish slavery. Elizabeth Cady Stanton later argued for female suffrage in terms that were more secular, more individualist and ultimately more elitist.

Type
Chapter
Information
Democracy, Theatre and Performance
From the Greeks to Gandhi
, pp. 117 - 144
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • American Democracy
  • David Wiles, University of Exeter
  • Book: Democracy, Theatre and Performance
  • Online publication: 17 May 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009167970.006
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  • American Democracy
  • David Wiles, University of Exeter
  • Book: Democracy, Theatre and Performance
  • Online publication: 17 May 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009167970.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • American Democracy
  • David Wiles, University of Exeter
  • Book: Democracy, Theatre and Performance
  • Online publication: 17 May 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009167970.006
Available formats
×