The Overflowing of Friendship: Love between Men and the Creation of the American Republic

Author:   Richard Godbeer (University of Miami)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN:  

9780801891205


Pages:   272
Publication Date:   10 May 2009
Recommended Age:   From 17
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
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The Overflowing of Friendship: Love between Men and the Creation of the American Republic


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Overview

When eighteenth-century American men described ""with a swelling of the heart"" their friendships with other men, addressing them as ""lovely boy"" and ""dearly beloved,"" celebrating the ""ardent affection"" that knit their hearts in ""indissoluble bonds of fraternal love,"" their families, neighbors, and acquaintances would have been neither surprised nor disturbed. Richard Godbeer's groundbreaking new book examines loving and sentimental friendships among men in the colonial and revolutionary periods. Inspired in part by the eighteenth-century culture of sensibility and in part by religious models, these relationships were not only important to the personal happiness of those involved but also had broader social, religious, and political significance. Godbeer shows that in the aftermath of Independence, patriots drafted a central place for male friendship in their social and political blueprint for the new republic. American revolutionaries stressed the importance of the family in the era of self-government, reimagining it in ways appropriate to a new and democratized era. They thus shifted attention away from patriarchal authority to a more egalitarian model of brotherly collaboration. In striving to explore the inner emotional lives of early Americans, Godbeer succeeds in presenting an entirely fresh perspective on the personal relationships and political structures of the period. Scholars have long recognized the importance of same-sex friendships among women, but this is the first book to examine the broad significance ascribed to loving friendships among men during this formative period of American history. Using an array of personal and public writings, The Overflowing of Friendship will transform our understanding of early American manhood as well as challenge us to reconsider the ways we think about gender in this period.

Full Product Details

Author:   Richard Godbeer (University of Miami)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Imprint:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.522kg
ISBN:  

9780801891205


ISBN 10:   0801891205
Pages:   272
Publication Date:   10 May 2009
Recommended Age:   From 17
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

"Acknowledgments Introduction 1. ""The Friend of My Bosom"": A Philadelphian Love Story 2. ""A Settled Portion of My Happiness"": Friendship, Sentiment, and Eighteenth-Century Manhood 3. ""The Best Blessing We Know"": Male Love and Spiritual Communion in Early America 4. ""A Band of Brothers"": Fraternal Love in the Continental Army 5. ""The Overflowing of Friendship"": Friends, Brothers, and Citizens in a Republic of Sympathy Epilogue Notes Index"

Reviews

Deeply and meticulously researched, powerfully and vividly written, The Overflowing of Friendship reveals a compelling picture of human connection in the past and opens a new world of love and possibility for the future. - Catherine Allgor, University of California, Riverside Just when it seems that new insight about the founding generation would be impossible, Richard Godbeer gives us a wholly new way of understanding that familiar group. In this brilliant and engaging blend of cultural, political, and gender history, Godbeer reveals deep forces at work behind politics in the early republic and at the same time writes a moving elegy to a lost form of male relationship. - E. Anthony Rotundo, author of American Manhood


The Overflowing of Friendship is a sophisticated analysis of sources that have long confused historians. Offering a thoughtful window onto the world of early American men, it demonstrates that sympathy and affection were important qualities for the founding fathers. -- John Gilbert McCurdy New England Quarterly 2009 Path-breaking... Godbeer has staked out bold ground with this book. Some early Americanists will surely scoff at the notion that sentimentality was relevant even in the macho arena of state formation, just as historians of sexuality will freeze at the inference that there is no sexual attraction or intimacy between these men. That one book could successfully intervene with both the oldest historiographical and the newest theoretical question is no small feat, but rather one for which Godbeer deserves the appreciation and admiration of his fellow historians. Journal of the Early Republic 2010 His beautifully crafted book breaks important new ground. -- Anne S. Lombard American Historical Review 2010 This is a splendid study that should be useful to students at every level and to scholars in the field... A thoughtful and careful study. -- George E. Haggerty Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 2010


Author Information

Richard Godbeer is a professor of history at the University of Miami. His books include Sexual Revolution in Early America, also published by Johns Hopkins, The Salem Witch Hunt: A Brief History with Documents, Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692, and The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England.

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