Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America
Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America
Morgan argues, in effect, that representative democracy is a tool to bolster rule by the powerful few over the many; the majority are thus led to believe they control their own destiny. In this quietly subversive rereading of our history, American colonists perfected the fiction of popular rule by involving voters in extravagant electoral campaigns and by insisting that elected representatives derived their power from their constituents. Meanwhile, elitist colonial rulers who owned considerable property pulled strings to get their way.
Buy this book at Amazon- Publisher
- New York : Norton
- Year
- 1988
- ISBN-13
- 9780393025057
- Genre
- History
- Topics
- Popular sovereigntyRepresentative democracyColonial America political history
Awards
- Bancroft PrizeWon(1989)
Other awarded books from Edmund S. Morgan
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