Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Unruly Americans
I am still working on the pre-read of Woody Holton's "Unruly Americans " but so far I found the preface to be charming and full of character. While reading it I imagined myself as his student participating in the exercise they were doing. At first I thought he was going to pose the question "what if the Constitution had been ratified without a Constitution" but instead he closes with " If the most compelling motive for the Constitution was not to safeguard civil liberties, what was it?". This is where I leave off to go find the answer...
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This same question concerning alternative motives for the constitution lingered over my reading of the first chapter, which Holton devotes entirely to reaction to the tax code. This is certainly a surprise considering the "unruly" citizens implied by the title, but as far as I've read so far, Holton definitely seems determined to shift our preconceived notions of the political culture leading up to ratification. I'm looking forward to learning more.
ReplyDeleteRyan, I was also surprised with the focus on the tax code. I haven't finished the book yet, but thus far I am wondering if the "most compelling motive for the Constitution" was rather a means to solidify economic interest and investment in America and to create more capital. But that's an early, unformed thought. Just what I've picked up so far in the readings.
DeleteI have been thinking the same things as I read. The chapter on taxes was definitely unexpected. I found it interesting that the common people's problem according to the wealthy at the time that it wasn't over taxation that was causing the economic issues but that they were buying feathers and gauze for their dresses. Men were buying beer too but Holton did not put too much focus on that as far as I can tell. I just thought it was funny that the people at the time placed economic hardships on female shopping instead anything the governments at the time were doing.
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