Citizen Nation

Thanks to all who could attend the Naturalization Ceremony in Worcester today. I know we all found it very moving! I look forward to talking about it in Monday’s class – if you were able to go, you might jot down some notes and impressions while they’re fresh in your mind and bring them to class – or feel free to comment on this post if you have things you’d like to share about the experience.

Monday 3/5 Contested Meanings: The Long View
Reading: Linda Kerber, “The Meanings of Citizenship” (PDF). Kerber is one of the preeminent scholars on the history of how citizenship has changed and what it has meant in different eras, and the author of No Constitutional Right to be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship, among other books. As we’ve talked about citizenship and participation in democratic/political institutions up to about 1900, this article gives us an opportunity to stand back and reflect on how these different story threads (towards universal white male suffrage + granting of black male suffrage but its severe restriction by 1900 under state laws & customs + the glimmerings of a movement for women’s suffrage + the Native American catch 22) come together by the turn of the 20th century.

There’s a response paper due on Monday – you can base it on the Kerber reading and/or on the citizenship ceremony experience if you attended. Use this paper to demonstrate what you’ve learned in the course so far. Some questions you could consider:

• What multiple “meanings” did you glean from the ceremony?
• What did Kerber mean when she said citizenship’s meaning was “destabilized”? (She wrote the essay in 1997)
• How did gender, race, and class inform the meaning of citizenship by 1900?
• Why is the reality of the history of citizenship so different from the myth? How did that myth become so entrenched?
• Kerber questions the need for citizenship. Is her skepticism justified? How was that need perceived or constructed by the end of the 19th century? What might people have made of her argument 100 years ago?

Wednesday 3/7 – Women’s Suffrage
Reading: RV Ch 6; also your paper topic is due that day. Guidelines are posted under the “Research Project” tab above – if you need help in the process of framing a topic/question, please email or visit during office hours.