Parlor politics : in which the ladies of Washington help build a city and a government / Catherine Allgor.
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 assu...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Charlottesville :
University Press of Virginia,
2000.
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| Series: | Jeffersonian America.
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| Subjects: |
| 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. |
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| Physical Description: | 299 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-284) and index. |
| ISBN: | 0813919983 9780813919980 081392118X 9780813921181 |