American Identity

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

hmm, odd. there must have been a resurgence around the turn of the century though, because i had a number of relatives in the Freemasons.

The Antimason movement was contained almost entirely to the American Northeast and died out pretty quickly after their defeat in the 1832 presidential election mostly because the overarching Masonic conspiracy that they were fighting against really did not exist (as made evident by the fact that the lodges did not fall like dominoes under Antimasonic pressure... well that and, with growing tensions between the North and South, people had more important things (like a civil war) to worry about).

Today, there are plenty of Masons all over the world... and I would like to thank them for the Shrine Circus and funny tiny motorcycles.

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

Good call on Toqueville - it's sitting on my shelf, why I didn't think of it, I have NO idea. I think this semester has rendered me brain dead.

Interesting tidbit: Antimasons ran their own candidate in the 1832 election (William Wirt) - America's first Third Party! Ahhh - the things I know.

I would have thought that the Democrats were the first "third party". Does this mean we have never had a Democrat run against a Federalist?

 

[fusangite]

So - I was wondering if any of you academic types could point me in the direction of any good books (secondary sources) on the development of American Identity.

Gary Gerstle's American Crucible does a very good job of that, especially with respect to political identity but he speaks to twentieth century America; nevertheless, some his ideas may be useful.

As for the specific anti-Masonic stuff, I strongly recommend you read the beginning chapters of Richard Bushman's, Michael Quinn's books on the founding of Mormonism. Quinn's Mormonism and the Magic Worldview is really good for providing details of freemasonry's impact on the Burned Over District and the essential similarities between Masonic and anti-Masonic movements.

EDIT: As infuriating as the writing style is and as old as the book is, Louis Hartz' magnum opus The Liberal Tradition in America is probably a must wirh respect to identity construction.

 

[wingsandsword]

I always figured that the antimasonic movement was the real coming of age of the American political society, and it began to show a lot of patterns that would keep reappearing throught atmerican history:

A genuinely contrary idea, in clear opposition to the mainstream, bought into by the disaffected which lasts for a relatively short time before burning out. How many short-lived third parties built around a single idea have come and gone? The Dixiecrats, Know Nothings, and Reform Party come to mind immediately.

It was based on the idea of a shadowy conspiracy. We've seen shadowy conspiracies for generations. Whether it was the Masons conspiring to take all political power, Spaniards trying to bomb the USS Maine, an alien crash at Roswell or the cloud of uncertainty over the death of JFK, it's always been a part of our politics and society to look for movement in the shadows.

It was also one of the first real relatively large-scale oppositions to the established government (leaving out small-scale actions like the Whiskey Rebellion), helping to build up the bulwark of the First Amendment tradition, and underscoring just how tolerant this country is of disparate political ideals, even those that run in significant opposition to the mainstream.