Robert E. Shalhope – författare

In August 1835, in the midst of a particularly tumultuous year of nationwide unrest and upheaval, Baltimore suffered one of the most violent and destructive riots experienced by any antebellum American city. Fueled by a growing outrage over frauds associated with the closing of the Bank of Maryland, rioters devastated the splendid homes of the city's wealthiest and most prominent citizens, and the victims' prized personal possessions were thrown into the streets to be consumed in public bonfires. The authorities completely surrendered the city to the mercy of mobs roaming the streets--mobs supported by the cheers of thousands of bystanders. In this study, Robert E. Shalhope examines the causes and consequences of the Baltimore Bank Riot of 1835 and its relationship to the emergent political culture not only of antebellum Maryland but of the nation at large. He uses the bank riot to investigate the tensions between two countervailing impulses within Maryland society: on the one hand, the vision of an egalitarian, democratic society rooted in traditional communal values and resting on the sovereignty of the people; and on the other, a market-oriented perspective that advocated a more disciplined, ordered society dependent on the power and authority of the state.The Baltimore Bank Riot explores the constitutional issues emanating from this ideological tension. It also provides insights into similar riots of the 1830s as well as the banking practices characteristic of the early nineteenth century. Deeply informed by an analysis of the newspapers and pamphlets of the time, this book shows how Marylanders grappled with the ideas circulating among the changing social, political, and economic environment of their time.

The last half of the eighteenth century was a period of enormous cultural and intellectual ferment in America-an era of fundamental transformation in law, politics, and religion, as well as deep changes in the American social order. At the center of the turmoil was the American Revolution, an event with roots reaching far back into the colonial period and effects extending well into the nineteenth century. In The Roots of Democracy: American Thought and Culture, 1760-1800 Robert E. Shalhope traces the dramatic shifts in attitudes and behavior from before the Revolution, through the war itself, the creation of republican governments, and the conflicts of the 1790s. This outstanding synthesis addresses a number of recurrent themes in American cultural history, including the persistence of conflict between democratic impulses and elitist tendencies-a conflict that has resurfaced in our own time. Anyone seeking to understand American political thought will find this straightforward and provocative book a useful entry into the subject and will come away with a deeper awareness of the origins and meaning of American democracy. The Roots of Democracy is an outstanding synthesis that provides provocative insights into a vital time in which the forces that formed modern American democracy took shape.

The last half of the eighteenth century was a period of enormous cultural and intellectual ferment in America-an era of fundamental transformation in law, politics, and religion, as well as deep changes in the American social order. At the center of the turmoil was the American Revolution, an event with roots reaching far back into the colonial period and effects extending well into the nineteenth century. In The Roots of Democracy: American Thought and Culture, 1760-1800 Robert E. Shalhope traces the dramatic shifts in attitudes and behavior from before the Revolution, through the war itself, the creation of republican governments, and the conflicts of the 1790s. This outstanding synthesis addresses a number of recurrent themes in American cultural history, including the persistence of conflict between democratic impulses and elitist tendencies-a conflict that has resurfaced in our own time. Anyone seeking to understand American political thought will find this straightforward and provocative book a useful entry into the subject and will come away with a deeper awareness of the origins and meaning of American democracy. The Roots of Democracy is an outstanding synthesis that provides provocative insights into a vital time in which the forces that formed modern American democracy took shape.

In this lively study, Robert E. Shalhope supplies a fascinating microcosmic view of the rise and triumph of liberal individualism in America and explores its impact on political culture.Selected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic TitleOriginally published in 1996. Americans who lived between the Revolution and Civil War felt the brunt of resounding and sometimes frightening changes, which together eventually influenced the political culture of early America. In this lively study, Robert E. Shalhope examines one of the changes most difficult to gauge and most controversial among students of the period—the rise and triumph of liberal individualism in America—and explores its impact on political culture.Taking Bennington, Vermont, and its environs as a case study, Shalhope untangles the clash among three competing elements in the community—the egalitarian communalism of the Strict Congregationalists; the democratic individualism of the revolutionary Green Mountain Boys; and the hierarchical authority of the community's Federalist gentlemen of property and standing. None of these players anticipated (and indeed did not wish for) the result—the emergence of democratic liberalism. Shalhope writes of class tension, economic competition, and religious differences—and ultimately of cultural conflict and political partisanship—and yet throughout uses individual life experiences to give the narrative piquancy and to emphasize the significance of seemingly small, personal decisions. Shalhope thus demonstrates how the private lives of ordinary people played a role in the settlement of public issues.As an account of a single town and how its residents responded to change, Bennington and the Green Mountain Boys supplies a fascinating microcosmic view of the larger story of how liberal America came to be.