316 - The Roots of Democracy: American Thought and Culture, 1760-1800

The Roots of Democracy: American Thought and Culture, 1760-1800
By Robert E. Shalhope
Boston, Twayne Publishers, 1990. 190 pp. $24.95.

Since the days of Charles Beard and Carl Becker early in this century, studies of Revolutionary American culture have expanded to tremendous proportions and have covered scores of interpretive themes. Significant changes took place during the years mentioned in the subtitle of this book. The transformation has been characterized variously as the opening of American society, the shift from Enlightenment rationalism to romantic democracy, and the democratization of the American mind. Earlier perspectives viewed this epoch as the triumph of either republicanism or liberalism. The former scheme highlighted a system of public virtue that subordinated private interests for the good of the community, maintaining social solidarity against the corrupting effects of power and the scramble for wealth. The latter viewpoint stressed the emergence of individualism, materialism, and factional group politics. Shalhope points out that the people of the time never felt themselves confronted by two sharply contrasting modes of thought. They were products of both

318 - The Roots of Democracy: American Thought and Culture, 1760-1800

republican and liberal influences as they clung to old ideals while welcoming fundamental changes in law, politics, religion, and the social order.

This book provides a valuable service by summarizing large amounts of the best recent scholarship. Rather than add to the list of studies that use primary sources, this work draws on the reflections of other specialists and weaves their findings into a masterful synthesis. As a sophisticated interpretation, it balances economic, social, ideological, and political considerations without letting any single factor predominate. As a succinct overview, it packs a wide range of secondary works together in a model of spare comprehensiveness. Its strengths lie in chronicling the shifts in political theory, the rise of party interests, and the complexities of constitutional development. Less well done but also informative are depictions of trends in the arts, education, religion, and concern for human rights among minorities such as women, blacks, and Indians.

Throughout his discussion of each of these topics, Shalhope applies an attractively ironic point of view. He sees things take place amid ambiguous situations where tensions between factions are only half noticed. He discerns only sporadic and piecemeal developments that have no overall design or intent. This mix of reciprocal dilemmas and anomalous consequences smacks of real life; history is not neat, and this account of the muddling through process is convincing.

The greatest lesson here is that people could use the same rhetoric and mean different things by it. Some could invoke republicanism, which argued for order, harmony, and virtue. Others could refer to the same ideal in fostering an acquisitive individualism. Most Americans were unaware of the direction in which the changing socioeconomic environment was taking them. Their responses to democratic ideals allowed them to espouse the common good as members of a harmonious organic society. While doing this, however, most of them pursued materialistic, utilitarian goals where individual prosperity became more important than unselfish devotion to the collective good. This is graphically illustrated in religious circles as orderly ecclesiastical patterns gave way to revivalism. In this dynamic era, ordinary people increasingly embraced churches that treated them as equals and spurned social distinctions. The religious impulse that urged each individual to seek one's own salvation had strong parallels in the larger culture where citizens were breaking free of all artificial social and political restraints. Cane Ridge camp meetings and votes for Jefferson comprised separate manifestations of a common cultural force, and Shalhope's discerning treatment helps us see it more clearly than before.

Henry Warner Bowden
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey