Moral minorities and the making of American democracy /

Should the majority always rule? If not, how should the rights of minorities be protected? In Moral Minorities and the Making of American Democracy, historian Kyle G. Volk unearths the origins of modern ideas and practices of minority-rights politics. Focusing on controversies spurred by the explosi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Volk, Kyle G. (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: New York : Oxford University Press, 2014.
Subjects:

MARC

LEADER 00000cam a2200000 i 4500
001 in00003501678
005 20151206122909.0
008 140411t20142014nyu b 001 0 eng
010 |a  2013050576 
020 |a 9780199371914 (hardback : acid-free paper) 
020 |a 0199371911 (hardback : acid-free paper) 
035 |a (OCoLC)ocn870986742 
040 |a DLC  |e rda  |c DLC  |d UtOrBLW 
043 |a n-us--- 
049 |a TXAM 
050 0 0 |a E184.A1  |b V73 2014 
082 0 0 |a 305.800973  |2 23 
100 1 |a Volk, Kyle G.,  |e author. 
245 1 0 |a Moral minorities and the making of American democracy /  |c Kyle G. Volk. 
264 1 |a New York :  |b Oxford University Press,  |c 2014. 
264 4 |c ©2014 
300 |a xi, 291 pages :  |b illustrations ;  |c 25 cm. 
336 |a text  |b txt  |2 rdacontent 
337 |a unmediated  |b n  |2 rdamedia 
338 |a volume  |b nc  |2 rdacarrier 
504 |a Includes bibliographical references and index. 
505 0 |a Making America's First Moral Majority -- Sunday Laws and the Problem of the Christian Republic -- The License Question and the Perils of "Pure Democracy" -- Mixed Marriages, Motley Schools, and the Struggle for Racial Equality -- "Jim Crow Conveyances" and the Politics of Integrating the Public -- America's First Wet Crusade and the Sunday Question Redux -- Epilogue: Making Democracy Safe for Minorities. 
520 2 |a Should the majority always rule? If not, how should the rights of minorities be protected? In Moral Minorities and the Making of American Democracy, historian Kyle G. Volk unearths the origins of modern ideas and practices of minority-rights politics. Focusing on controversies spurred by the explosion of grassroots moral reform in the early nineteenth century, he shows how a motley but powerful array of self-understood minorities reshaped American democracy as they battled laws regulating Sabbath observance, alcohol and interracial contact. Proponents justified these measures with the 'democratic' axiom of majority rule. In response, immigrants, Black northerners, abolitionists, liquor dealers, Catholics, Jews, Seventh-day Baptists and others articulated a different vision of democracy requiring the protection of minority rights. These moral minorities prompted a generation of Americans to reassess whether 'majority rule' was truly the essence of democracy, and they ensured that majority tyranny would no longer be just the fear of elites and slaveholders. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth-century, minority rights became the concern of a wide range of Americans attempting to live in an increasingly diverse nation. Volk reveals that driving this vast ideological reckoning was the emergence of America's tradition of popular minority-rights politics. To challenge hostile laws and policies, moral minorities worked outside of political parties and at the grassroots. They mobilized elite and ordinary people to form networks of dissent and some of America's first associations dedicated to the protection of minority rights. They lobbied officials and used constitutions and the common law to initiate 'test cases' before local and appellate courts. Indeed, the moral minorities of the mid-nineteenth century pioneered fundamental methods of political participation and legal advocacy that subsequent generations of civil-rights and civil-liberties activists would adopt and that are widely used today. 
650 0 |a Minorities  |x Civil rights  |z United States  |x History  |y 19th century. 
650 0 |a Minorities  |x Political activity  |z United States  |x History  |y 19th century. 
651 0 |a United States  |x Politics and government  |y 1845-1861. 
650 0 |a Democracy  |z United States  |x History  |y 19th century. 
650 0 |a Political participation  |z United States  |x History  |y 19th century. 
650 0 |a Dissenters  |z United States  |x History  |y 19th century. 
651 0 |a United States  |x Moral conditions  |x History  |y 19th century. 
651 0 |a United States  |x Social conditions  |y 19th century. 
651 0 |a United States  |x Ethnic relations  |x History  |y 19th century. 
650 7 |a HISTORY / United States / 19th Century.  |2 bisacsh 
650 7 |a POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory.  |2 bisacsh 
945 |a PromptCat 
946 |a stk 
947 |a A14840369807 
948 |a cataloged  |b h  |c 2014/9/26  |d c  |e dmitchel  |f 8:00:00 pm 
994 |a 92  |b TXA 
999 |a MARS 
999 f f |s 1855521a-b3b5-336a-9067-a8315029aae7  |i aa5e9a88-6196-30e6-85c3-55de5fbd273b  |t 0 
952 f f |p normal  |a Texas A&M University  |b College Station  |c Sterling C. Evans Library  |d Evans: Library Stacks  |t 0  |e E184.A1 V73 2014  |h Library of Congress classification  |i unmediated -- volume  |m A14840369807 
998 f f |a E184.A1 V73 2014  |t 0  |l Evans: Library Stacks