THE PEOPLE ENGAGE IN POLITICAL LIFE: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICAN STORY

本研究利用独特的个人层面政治信息档案，探讨了政治身份的概念，以及19世纪美国普通公民在政治生活中确立自己地位的方式。九个精心挑选的案例研究允许对传统和现代、城市和农村背景下的政治参与和党派关系进行审查。该项目提出了一个问题，即从农村地方主义政治中产生的民主理论如何以及是否在不同的社会环境中对公民保持意义。了解政治身份在过去是如何形成的，可能有助于我们找到提高政治在今天日常生活中的重要性的方法。

Using unique archives of individual level political information, this study explores the idea of political identities and the ways ordinary citizens in nineteenth century America established their place in political life. Nine carefully chosen case studies allow examination of political participation and partisanship in settings traditional and modern, urban and rural. The project asks how, and whether, a democratic theory arising from a politics of rural localism retained meaning for citizens in very different social settings. Understanding how political identities were created in the past may help us identify ways to increase the saliency of politics in ordinary lives today.