Colonial Origins and Legacies
by admin - January 23rd, 2012
For Wed 1/25, we move from a generic, conceptual definition of citizenship to (in Bellamy’s terms) a more empirical examination of actual citizenship in the American colonies and early republic. Who could be a citizen? Who was deemed capable of consenting? Who represented whom and how?
The reading is Chapter 1 in both our two textbooks, Alexander Keyssar’s The Right to Vote and Michael Schudson’s The Good Citizen. You will immediately notice that while they cover similar time periods, each has a quite different focus. Keyssar is concerned primarily with the narrower right to vote within the umbrella of citizenship exclusions and requirements, while Schudson is less interested in how the boundaries of citizenship were drawn and more interested in political practices broadly defined, and on what constitutes “good” citizenship in the past.
Bring the books to class, or take good notes and bring your notes.
As you read, keep track of places where Massachusetts is mentioned or discussed as an example. You’ll need these for later in the course. You might start a list in a document or notebook, or tag them with a sticky note or highlighter.
