Representative Words

• Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part I. The American Logocracy: The Nexus of Word and Act: 1. Political and linguistic representation: confidence or distrust?; 2. Language and legal constitutions: the problem of change and who governs; Part II. Political and Linguistic Corruption: The Ideological Inheritance: 3. The classical pattern: from the order or Orpheus to the chaos of the Thucydidean moment; 4. The Christian typology: From Eden to Babel to Pentecost; 5. Eloquence, liberty, and power: civic humanism and the counter-renaissance; 6. The enlightenment project: language reform and political order; Part III. The American Language of Revolution and Constitutional Change: 7. The language of revolution: combating misrepresentation with the pen and tongue; 8. The grammar of politics: the constitution; Part IV. From Logomachy to Civil War: The Politics of Language in Post-Revolutionary America; 9. The unsettled language: schoolmasters vs. truants; 10. Corrupt language and a corrupt body politic, or the disunion of words and things; 11. Sovereign words vs. representative men; Afterword; Notes; Index.

"Thomas Gustafson's Representative Words is a sweeping summary of American writing about language between the Revolution and the Civil War. It is, among other things, a wonderful source....The book is a gold mine of information." Journal of American History