Democracy by Petition: Popular Politics in Transformation, 1790-1870

Daniel Carpenter

Jul 2021 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Eric Michael Summerer

About this audiobook

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. Indigenous tribes in Canada, free Blacks from Boston to the British West Indies, Irish canal workers in Indiana, and Hispanic settlers in territorial New Mexico all used petitions to make claims on those in power. Petitions facilitated the extension of suffrage, the decline of feudal land tenure, and advances in liberty for women, African Americans, and Indigenous peoples. Even where petitioners failed in their immediate aims, their campaigns advanced democracy by setting agendas, recruiting people into political causes, and fostering aspirations of equality. The coming of democracy in America owes much to the unprecedented energy with which the petition was employed in the antebellum period.

About the author

Daniel Carpenter is Allie S. Freed Professor of Government at Harvard University and author of the prizewinning Reputation and Power and The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy. He has led the creation of the digital archive of antislavery and anti-segregation petitions and the digital archive of Native American petitions.

AudioFile Earphones Award winner Eric Michael Summerer is a voice actor and producer who has narrated numerous audiobooks as well as countless instructional recordings and video games. He earned an Audie Award nomination for Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke.