Knowledge Is Power: The Diffusion of Information in Early America, 1700-1865

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Oxford University Press, 05.09.1991 - 372 Seiten
Brown here explores America's first communications revolution--the revolution that made printed goods and public oratory widely available and, by means of the steamboat, railroad and telegraph, sharply accelerated the pace at which information travelled. He describes the day-to-day experiences of dozens of men and women, and in the process illuminates the social dimensions of this profound, far-reaching transformation. Brown begins in Massachusetts and Virginia in the early 18th century, when public information was the precious possession of the wealthy, learned, and powerful, who used it to reinforce political order and cultural unity. Employing diaries and letters to trace how information moved through society during seven generations, he explains that by the Civil War era, cultural unity had become a thing of the past. Assisted by advanced technology and an expanding economy, Americans had created a pluralistic information marketplace in which all forms of public communication--print, oratory, and public meetings--were competing for the attention of free men and women. Knowledge is Power provides fresh insights into the foundations of American pluralism and deepens our perspective on the character of public communications in the United States.

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Introduction
3
1 Information and Authority in Samuel Sewalls Boston 16761729
16
2 William Byrd II and the Challenge of Rusticity Among the Tidewater Gentry
42
3 Rural Clergymen and the Communication Networks of 18thCentury New England
65
The Early Careers of Robert Treat Paine and John Adams 17491774
82
Information Diffusion in Northern Ports from the 1760s to the 1790s
110
The Experiences of Yankee Farmers 17111830
132
Domestic Roles and the Mastery of Affective Information 17651865
160
8 William Bentley and the Ideal of Universal Information in the Enlightened Republic
197
Northern Men in the 1840s
218
The Battles of Lexington and Concord George Washingtons Death and the Assassination of President Lincoln 17751865
245
Conclusion
268
Appendix
297
Notes
303
Index
363
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Seite 132 - For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, Or busy housewife ply her evening care : No children run to lisp their sire's return, Or climb his knees, the envied kiss to share. Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke ; How jocund did they drive their team afield ! How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke ! Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile The short and...
Seite 47 - I have a large family of my own, and my doors are open to every body, yet I have no bills to pay, and half-a-Crown will rest undisturbed in my pocket for many moons together. Like one of the patriarchs...
Seite 92 - Pratt ; of Mr. Adams, as he is unknown to your honors, it is necessary to say that he has lived between two and three years with Mr. Putnam of Worcester, has a good character from him and all others who know him, and that he was with me the other day several hours, and I take it, he is qualified to study the law by his scholarship, and that he has made a very considerable, a very great proficiency in the principles of the law, and therefore, that the client's interest may be safely intrusted in his...
Seite 57 - They live in the same neat manner, dress after the same modes, and behave themselves exactly as the gentry in London; most families of any note having a coach, chariot, berlin, or chaise.
Seite 62 - For example, if you should travel through this Colony, with a well-confirmed testimonial of your having finished with Credit a Course of studies at Nassau-Hall; you would be rated, without any more questions asked, either about your family, your Estate, your business, or your intention, at 10,000 £; and you might come, & go, & converse, & keep company, according to this value; & you would be dispised & slighted if yo(u) rated yourself a farthing cheaper.
Seite 359 - The Female World of Love and Ritual : Relations Between Women in Nineteenth-Century America," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 1, no.
Seite 253 - Not content with shooting down the unarmed, aged and infirm, they disregarded the cries of the wounded, killing them without mercy, and mangling their bodies in the most shocking manner.
Seite 20 - ... to take the blame and shame of it; asking pardon of men, and especially desiring prayers that God, who has an unlimited authority, would pardon that sin...

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