Democracy by Petition
Subtitle: Popular Politics in Transformation, 1790-1870
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2021
Language: eng
Number of pages: 648
ISBN-13: 9780674247499
Subjects: Political science
Description: "Known as the age of democracy, the nineteenth century witnessed the extension of the franchise and the rise of party politics. As Daniel Carpenter shows, however, democracy in America emerged not merely through elections and parties, but through the transformation of an ancient political tool: the petition. A statement of grievance accompanied by a list of signatures, the petition afforded women and men excluded from formal politics the chance to make their voices heard and to reshape the landscape of political possibility. Democracy by Petition traces the explosion and expansion of petitioning across the North American continent"--