Parlor politics : in which the ladies of Washington help build a city and a government Catherine Allgor

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Allgor, Catherine, 1958-

Series:

Jeffersonian America

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--Political activity--Washington (D.C.)--History--19th century.

Upper class women--Washington (D.C.)--History--19th century.

Entertaining--Washington (D.C.)--History--19th century.

Washington (D.C.)--History--19th century.

Washington (D.C.)--Politics and government--19th century.

Washington (D.C.)--Social life and customs--19th century.

Physical Description:

299 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Charlottesville : University Press of Virginia, 2000.

Summary:

When Thomas Jefferson moved his Republican administration into the new capital city in 1801, one of his first acts was to abolish any formal receptions, except on specific holidays. His successful campaign for the presidency had been partially founded on the idea that his Federalist enemies had assumed dangerously aristocratic trappings. His deep suspicion of any occasion that resembled a European court caused a major problem, however: without the face-to-face relationships and networks created in society, the American experiment in government could not function. Into this conundrum, writes Catherine Allgor, stepped women like Dolley Madison and Louisa Catherine Adams, women of political families who used the unofficial, social sphere to cement the relationships that politics needed to work. Not only did they create a space in which politics was effectively conducted; their efforts legitimated the new republic and the new capital in the eyes of European nations.--From publisher description.

Contents:

President Thomas Jefferson in Washington City

Dolley Madison takes command

Washington women in public

Louisa Catherine Adams campaigns for the presidency

The fall of Andrew Jackson's cabinet.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-284) and index.

ISBN:

0813919983

9780813919980

081392118X

9780813921181

OCLC:

44132899