Liberty on the waterfront : American maritime culture in the Age of Revolution / Paul A. Gilje.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gilje, Paul A., 1951-

Series:

Early American studies.

Early American studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sailors--United States--History--18th century.

Sailors.

Sailors--United States--History--19th century.

Seafaring life--United States--History--18th century.

Seafaring life.

Seafaring life--United States--History--19th century.

United States--History, Naval--To 1900.

United States.

United States. Navy--History--18th century.

United States. Navy--History--19th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (359 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia, PA : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Through careful research and colorful accounts, historian Paul A. Gilje discovers what liberty meant to an important group of common men in American society, those who lived and worked on the waterfront and aboard ships. In the process he reveals that the idealized vision of liberty associated with the Founding Fathers had a much more immediate and complex meaning than previously thought.In Liberty on the Waterfront: American Maritime Culture in the Age of Revolution, life aboard warships, merchantmen, and whalers, as well as the interactions of mariners and others on shore, is recreated in absorbing detail. Describing the important contributions of sailors to the resistance movement against Great Britain and their experiences during the Revolutionary War, Gilje demonstrates that, while sailors recognized the ideals of the Revolution, their idea of liberty was far more individual in nature-often expressed through hard drinking and womanizing or joining a ship of their choice.Gilje continues the story into the post-Revolutionary world highlighted by the Quasi War with France, the confrontation with the Barbary Pirates, and the War of 1812.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

PART I. ASHORE AND AFLOAT

1 The Sweets of Liberty

2 The Maid I Left Behind Me

3 A Sailor Ever Loves to Be in Motion

PART II. REVOLUTION

4 The Sons of Neptune

5 Brave Republicans of the Ocean

6 Free Trade and Sailors' Rights

PART III. LEGACY

7 Proper Objects of Christian Compassion

8 The Ark of the Liberties of the World

Epilogue

Glossary

Notes

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [269]-323) and index.

ISBN:

9781283890731

1283890739

9780812202021

0812202023

OCLC:

802051772