The Body Politic

In this text, Catherine Holland advances a thesis that challenges the dominant schools of thought concerning the liberal tradition in the United States. Organized around two founding moments - the American Revolution and ratification of the Constitution and the period of Reconstruction following the American Civil War - the book identifies a recurring, symbolic figure at the heart of American dilemmas of citizenship and nation, namely the human body. The author reinterprets the meaning of the body as crucial to understanding pivotal moments in the founding and refounding of American citizenship and also re-examines both literature and events. These range from the writings of Thomas Jefferson to the adultery trial of Henry Ward Beecher to demonstrate how embodiment and disembodiment have shaped the imagination of the nation and of citizenship throughout American political history.