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Thesis:

Americans continued a long tradition of English political celebrations by adapting these fetes to suit their new political situation after the Revolution. While past scholarship has been interested in a supposed American nationalism expressed in these parades, holidays, celebratory dinners and oratories, Waldstreicher demonstrates that these events were highly politicized and represent dissent and contentiousness in the early republic, rather than a consensous, or unitary nationalism. The political divisions that can be seen in the celebrations that followed independence, the ratification of the Constitution, and the rise of party politics are evidence of how various ideas of nationalism became manifest and were practiced the everyday lives of people throughout the states.

Why write this book:

1. To reveal the struggle over the direction and form of the new republic.
2. To show that political expression was practiced widely by the general public and by people from all social and economic classes.
3. To show that nationalism should be studied in its practical manifestations, and not just through the lens of ideology.