Last week, we announced our plans for “Junto March Madness 2014” – a bracket tournament pitting our readers’ favorite early American history books published since 2000 against each other. Today, we begin the Call for Nominations. Check out the rules below and then add your nominations and seconds in the Comments section. Then, by the power of The Junto‘s bracketologists, we’ll compile the tournament brackets, and open it up for your votes starting next Monday.
The Rules
1) All books whose first edition was published on or after January 1, 2000 are eligible.
2) All nominations must be made in the Comments section of this post.
3) We ask you nominate a maximum of three books that have not yet been nominated. You may also “second” the nomination of three other books that have already been nominated. If you were going to nominate books already mentioned you may do so and they will be tallied as seconds. Self-nominations are allowed.
NB: Essentially, each voter can nominate and second up to six books but only three can be new nominations. Given the number of comments posted last year, it would be helpful if you explicitly stated which of your books count as nominations, and which count as seconds. (To see if one of your choices has already been nominated, go to Edit->Find in your browser and type in the name of the book.)
4) Nominations will close at 5pm on Thursday (March 13th). The first-round brackets will go up on Friday, March 14th, and readers will have the weekend to think about their picks before first-round voting begins on Monday, March 17th.
The Disclaimer
Like last year’s tournament, this is all meant to be taken in a spirit of fun. This tournament is not meant to bestow any kind of value judgment on individual works. If anything, it may be a reflection of the “favorite” books of our readers; but that should not be thought of as implying that it reflects what our readers or this blog think is the “best” book published since 2000. Last year’s competition inspired lots of interesting and entertaining conversations, and this year we’re hoping to introduce our readers to more recent literature, especially in areas that might be outside of their direct attention.
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Some Juntoists have helped kick off the nominating process with the following nominations. To be clear, this is not a definitive list of our three favorite books since 2000, but rather a means of getting the nomination process rolling.
Ken: Max Edling, A Revolution In Favor Of Government; Douglas Bradburn, The Citizenship Revolution; Pekka Hämäläinen, The Comanche Empire
Ben: Eric Slauter, The State As A Work Of Art; Trish Loughran, The Republic In Print; Catherine Brekus, Sarah Osborn’s World
Rachel: Michael A. LaCombe, Political Gastronomy: Food and Authority in the English Atlantic World; Edward Andrews, Native Apostles; John Grenier, The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier, 1607-1814
Michael H.: T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution; Brendan McConville, The King’s Three Faces; Benjamin Irvin, Clothed In The Robes of Sovereignty
Tom: Holly Brewer, By Birth Or Consent; Terry Bouton, Taming Democracy; Patrick Griffin, American Leviathan.
Jonathan: Joanne Freeman, Affairs of Honor; Alan Taylor, The Civil War of 1812; Peter Silver, Our Savage Neighbors
The Junto 
Michael McDonnell, ‘The Politics of War’; Serena Zabin, ‘Dangerous Economies’; and Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker, ‘The Many-Headed Hydra’.
M. Valeri, Heavenly merchandize : how religion shaped commerce in Puritan America (Princeton,2010).
C. Tomlins, Freedom bound : law, labor, and civic identity in colonizing English America, 1580-1865, (New York, 2010)
A Greer, Mohawk Saint : Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits. (New York, 2005).
Patrick Griffin, American Leviathan
Terry Bouton, Taming Democracy
Pekka Hämäläinen, The Comanche Empire
I’ll second “The Many-Headed Hydra”.
Also, Rebecca Scott and Jean Hebrard, “Freedom Papers,” Brett Rushforth, “Bonds of Alliance.”
Or Greer, “Mohawk Saint” nominated above
Seconding Rushforth.
I’d nominate the following:
S. Max Edelson’s “Plantation Enterprise in Colonial South Carolina”
April Hatfield’s “Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century”
Trevor Burnard’s “Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire: Thomas Thistlewood and His Slaves in the Anglo-Jamaican World”
I’d also second Hämäläinen’s “Comanche Empire” and Greer’s “Mohawk Saint”
Seth Cotlar, Tom Paine’s America: The Rise and Fall of Transatlantic Radicalism in the Early Republic
Robin Einhorn, American Taxation, American Slavery
Rebecca Anne Goetz, The Baptism of Early Virginia: How Christianity Created Race
Seconding Seth Cotlar.
Seconding
Freeman, Affairs of Honor
Rushforth, Bonds of Alliance
Nominating:
Kathleen Brown, Foul Bodies
Vincent Brown, The Reaper’s Garden
Paul Johnson, Sam Patch, The Famous Jumper
Also, some possible suggestions for future tournaments: influential journal articles, favorite historical films about Early America (perhaps extended to Civil War era to account for lack of earlier movies), and books from before 1980.
Also since I have one second left, I will “second” anyone who goes ahead and nominates Fred Anderson’s Crucible of War
Seconding:
Brown, The Reaper’s Garden
Many-Headed Hydra
Irvin, Clothed In The Robes of Sovereignty
Nominating:
Morgan, Laboring Women
DuVal, Native Ground
Landers, Atlantic Creoles in the Age of Revolutions
Second: Brown, Foul Bodies and Greer’s “Mohawk Saint”
Nominating:
Martin, Buying Into the World of Goods: Early Consumers in Backcountry Virginia
Walsh, Motives of Honor, Pleasure & Profit: Plantation Management in the Early Chesapeake
Second: Bouton, Taming Democracy; lan Taylor, The Civil War of 1812; Freeman, Affairs of Honor
Nominate: Waldstreicher, Runaway America; Horton, Unruly Americans; Klepp, Revolutionary Conceptions
Second: DuVal, Native Ground
McDonnell, Politics of War
Nominate: Christina Snyder, Slavery in Indian Country
Lacy Ford, Deliver Us From Evil
Anne Hyde: Empires, Nations, Families
Seconding:
Martin, Buying into the World of Goods
Edling, Revolution in Favor of Government
Breen, Marketplace of Revolution
And before nominating, a question: are books which were in last year’s tournament eligible this year?
Megan – yes. I think some books that have appeared in last year’s bracket have already made their way into the nominations (somewhat predictably!)
Thanks Ken.
Nominate:
Maya Jasanoff, Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World
Matthew Mulcahy, Hurricanes and Society in the British Greater Caribbean, 1642-1783
Sarah S. M. Pearsall, Atlantic Families: Lives and Letters in the Later Eighteenth Century
Second: Andrews, Native Apostles, Brekus, Sarah Osborn’s World.
Nominate: Chris Hodson, The Acadian Diaspora, Randy Sparks, The Two Princes of Calabar, Fisher, The Indian Great Awakening.
New: Jon T. Coleman, Here Lies Hugh Glass; Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship; David Silverman, Red Brethren
Second: Linford Fisher, Indian Great Awakening; Rebecca Goetz, Baptism of Early Virginia; Pekka Hämäläinen, Comanche Empire
Nominate: Eliga Gould, Among the Powers of the Earth; Rockman, Scraping By; Furstenberg, In the Name of the Father.
Second: Cotlar, Tom Paine’s America; McConville, The King’s Three Faces; Morgan, Laboring Women.
I nominate:
Michael O’Brien, *Conjectures of Order*
Seth Rockman, *Scraping By*
Annette Gordon-Reed, *The Hemingses of Monticello*
I second:
S. Max Edelson’s *Plantation Enterprise*
Trish Loughran’s *The Republic in Print*
Second O’Brien.
Second Sarah Osborn’s World, Hemingses of Monticello.
Nominate: Alan Taylor’s The Internal Enemy
I nominate:
Karin Wulf, Not All Wives
Sharon Block, Rape and Sexual Power in Early America
Jill Lepore, New York Burning
I second:
Peter Silver, Our Savage Neighbors
Susan Klepp, Revolutionary Conceptions
Vincent Brown, The Reaper’s Garden
My suggestion for future tournaments:
Historians’ first books
Second New York Burning
Nominating:
Leslie Harris, In the Shadow of Slavery
Nicole Eustace, Passion is the Gale
Eva Shepard Wolf, Race and Liberty in the New Nation
Seconding: Morgan, Laboring Women
Nominating:
Parrish, American Curiosity
Haulman, The Politics of Fashion in Eighteenth-Century America
Seconding:
Wulf, Not All Wives
Klepp, Revolutionary Conceptions
Brekus, Sarah Osborn’s World
Morgan, Laboring Women
Nominating:
Jon Parmenter, The Edge of the Woods: Iroquoia, 1534-1701
Alan Taylor, The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies
P.J. Marshall, Remaking the British Atlantic: The United States and the British Empire after American Independence
Seconding:
Klepp, Revolutionary Conceptions
Taylor, The Internal Enemy
Irvin, Clothed in Robes of Sovereignty
Nominating:
Christopher Leslie Brown’s Moral Capital
Seconding:
Gordon-Reed’s The Hemingses of Monticello
Wow. Just reading this is so immensely entertaining and thought-provoking.
Nominating:
Haulman, Politics of Fashion in Eighteenth-Century America
Eustace, 1812
Seconding:
Einhorn, American Taxation, American Slavery
Nominating:
Jenny Hale Pulsipher, Subjects Unto the Same King
Woody Holton, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution
Gregory Evans Dowd, War Under Heaven: Pontiac, the Indian Nations, and the British Empire
Seconding:
Alan Taylor, Civil War of 1812
Edward Andrews, Native Apostles
Seconding:
Parrish, American Curiosity
Burnard, Mastery, Tyranny and Desire
I second Zabin, Dangerous Economies and Burnard, Mastery, Tyranny and Desire.
New nominations: Hancock, Oceans of Wine; Hartigan-O’Connor, The Ties that Buy; and Jarvis, In The Eye of All Trade.
I second Rushforth, Bonds of Alliance.
Chronologically a bit later, I nominate Cathy Brekus, Strangers and Pilgrims and Juster, Doomsayers.
Seconding:
Freeman, Affairs of Honor
Hartigan-O’Connor, The Ties That Buy (doh, should’ve nominated that one)
Fea, The Way of Improvement Leads Home
I second Slauter, _The State as a Work of Art_ and Brewer, _By Birth or Consent_.
I’ll add Sophia Rosenfeld, _Common Sense: A Political History_ (Princeton, 2011) and James Sweet, _Domingos Alvares, African Healing, and the Intellectual History of the Atlantic World_ (UNC, 2011).
Cry Liberty by Peter Charles Hoffer (2012) and Routes of War by Yael Sternhell
I’ll engage with some … gasp … military history. The Men Who Lost America by Andrew O’Shaughnessy; Three Peoples, One King by James Piecuch; and A Leap in the Dark by John Ferling.
Ferling is not very good mil hx, but I appreciate the effort … Pretty clear that mh remains marginalized in this crowd.
Second CRY LIBERTY and IN EYE OF ALL TRADE.
I second:
Cotlar, TOM PAINE’S AMERICA
Klepp, REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPTIONS
Breen, MARKETPLACE OF REVOLUTION
Edling, REVOLUTION IN FAVOR OF GOVERNMENT
Jasanoff, LIBERTY’S EXILES
Brewer, BY BIRTH OR CONSENT
I second:
Douglas Bradburn, The Citizenship Revolution
I’ll nominate:
Chernow, George Washington
Fischer, Washington’s Crossing
and second
O’Shaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America
I’ll also nominate (#3)
Greene, The Constitutional Origins of the American Revolution
Nominations:
Brown, The Pilgrim and the Bee
Finch, Dissenting Bodies
Allgor, Parlor Politics
Seconds:
Goetz, Baptism of Early Virginia
Juster, Doomsayers
Brown, Foul Bodies
Nominations:
Nancy Isenberg, Fallen Founder
David Waldstreicher, Slavery’s Constitution
Amanda Porterfield, Conceived in Doubt
Seconds:
Gould, Among the Powers of the Earth
Cotlar, Tom Paine’s America
Jasanoff, Liberty’s Exiles
We seem a bit light on slavery and abolitionism, so how about:
Newman, Transformation of American Abolitionism
Mason, Slavery and Politics in the Early Republic
Hammond, Slavery, Freedom, and Expansion
I second the earlier nomination of Johnson’s Sam Patch and the books by Alan Taylor, Patrick Griffin, Jennifer Pulsipher, Eliga Gould, Andrew O’Shaughnessy, &c. &c.
I second:
John Craig Hammond, SLAVERY, FREEDOM, AND EXPANSION IN THE EARLY AMERICAN WEST
Richard S. Newman, THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN ABOLITIONISM:FIGHTING SLAVERY IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC
Light on slavery? Seriously?
I second:
Serena Zabin, “Dangerous Economies: Status and Commerce in Imperial New York”
Joanna Freeman, “Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic”
Annette Gordon-Reed, “The Hemingses of Monticello”
I nominate:
Eliga Gould, “The Persistence of Empire”
Paul Mapp, “The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire”
Pauline Maier’s “Ratification” seems to be my only new nomination.
Seconding:
Jasanoff, “Liberty’s Exiles”
Jarvis, “In the Eye of All Trade”
Taylor, “The Civil War of 1812”
Rediker, “The Slave Ship”
Freeman, “Affairs of Honor”
I’ll second Maier’s “Ratification.”
Nominating:
Walter Johnson, River of Dark Dreams
Walter Johnson, Soul By Soul
Gene Smith, The Slaves’ Gamble: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812
I can’t nominate you, Mark, as I haven’t read the book yet. It is still on the to read list though! Sorry!
I’m like John Fea–my book doesn’t deserve to be in the bracket, but it sure would be fun!
Nominating:
Andrlik, Todd. “Reporting the Revolutionary War.” Naperville: Sourcebooks, 2012.
Maier, Pauline. “Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788.” New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.
Wood, Gordon S. “Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815.” Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
I did not see that Ratification had already been nominated. Therefore please strike it and insert Spring, Matthew. “With Zeal and Bayonets Only: The British Army on Campaign in North America, 1775-1783.” Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008.
Nominations:
Rosemarie Zagarri, Revolutionary Backlash
John Brooke, Columbia Rising
Mary Kelley, Learning to Stand and Speak
Can we do essay collections? If so, Pasley, Waldstreicher, Robertson, Beyond the Founders
Seconding:
Eustace, Passion is the Gale
Allgor, Parlor Politics
McConville, Three Faces
Breen, Marketplace of Revolution
Kupperman, The Jamestown Project
Taylor, The Civil War of 1812
Nominate:
Winship, Making Heretics
Haefeli, New Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty
Taylor, American Colonies
Second:
Maier, Ratification
Fisher, Indian Great Awakening
Bekus, Strangers and Pilgrims
I believe these are fresh nominations:
Anthony Parent, “Foul Means”
Monica Najar, “Evangelizing the South”
Charles Irons, “The Origins of Proslavery Christianity”
Seconding, Holton, Zagarri, Kelly
Nominate:
Kevin Kenny, Peaceable Kingdom Lost
George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards
Erskine Clarke, Dwelling Place: A Plantation Epic
Second:
McConnville, KingsThree Faces
Tiya Miles, “Ties That Bind.” Seconding Zagarri, Kelly, Gordon-Reed.
Seconding:
Miles, “Ties That Bind”
Allgor, “Parlor Politics”
Kelley, “Learning to Stand and Speak”
Nominating:
Stephanie Smallwood, “Saltwater Slavery”
Stephanie Camp, “Closer to Freedom”
Juliana Barr, “Peace Came in the Form of a Woman”
So many good books already. So, I’ll add these (which I don’t think I saw above)
Nominating:
Ava Chamberlain, The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle.
David Hall, A Reforming People
David Silverman, Faith & Boundaries
Nominating:
Adam Rothman, “Slave Country”
Calvin Schermerhorn, “Money Over Mastery, Family Over Freedom”
Laurent Dubois, “Avengers of the New World”
Seconding:
McConville, “King’s Three Faces”
Zagarri, “Revolutionary Backlash”
Taylor, “Civil War of 1812
Nominating
John Fea, “Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?”
I will happily second this book as a fine example of a scholar seeking an answer to a very good and relevant question.
I’d also like to nominate Fea’s *The Way of Improvement Leads Home*
Nominate:
1. Kate Carte’ Engel – Religion and Profit: Moravians in Early America
2. Troy Bickham – The Weight of Vengeance: The United States, the British Empire, and the War of 1812
3. Alan Taylor – The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution
Second
1. George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life
2. Monica Najar, Evangelizing the South: A Social History of Church and State in Early America
3. David Hackett Fischer – Washington’s Crossing
Nominate:
1. Charles C. Mann – 1491 (strays outside the field a bit)
2. Sarah Meacham – Every Home A Distillery
3. Jeff Pasley – Tyranny of Printers
Second:
1. Reed, Hemingses of Monticello
2. Waldstreicher, Slavery’s Constitution
3. Wood, Empire of Liberty (just invaluable as an overview)
My seconds: Taylor, Divided Ground; Piecuch, Three Peoples, One King; Rosenfeld, Common Sense
What about
Greg Grandin The Empire of Necessity
I would like to nominate the following:
Gregg L. Frazer, The Religious Beliefs of America’s Founders, Reason, Revelation, and Revolution.
Harlow Giles Unger, Mr. President. George Washington and the Making of the Nation’s Highest Office.
James P. Byrd, Sacred Scripture Sacred War
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (I know, it’s a novel, but it teaches American history AND history of science).
Seconding:
Burnard, Parrish, Barr
Nominate:
Juliana Barr, Peace Came in the Form of a Woman: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands (unless someone alrady did, I see a seconding for Barr but I might have overlooked the original nomination, if we’re talking about the same Barr.)
Jon Sensbach Rebecca’s Revival.
Elaine Forman Crane, Witches, Wife Beaters, and Whores: Common Law and Common Folk in Early America
I’d like to second Pekka Hamalainen’s The Comanche Empire and Meacham’s Every Home a Distillery.
Please ignore typos in the above post, I’ve got a baby in one arm and am trying to type with the other. Babies: ruining blog comments since 2013 (at least in my case.)
Hi Amanda. We’re talking about the same Barr. That gives you another nomination, if you want.
I’ll nominate:
Clare Lyon’s “Sex Among the Rabble”
Barry Levy’s “Town Born”
Stephen Saunders Webb, “Marlborough’s America”
And second:
P.J. Marshall, “Remaking the British Atlantic”
Catherine Allgor, “Parlor Politics”
T.H. Breen, “The Marketplace of Revolution”
Although I’m surprised that the work of Fred Anderson, Alan Gallay, Richard Godbeer, and Dan Richter, among others, hasn’t been nominated yet.
I’ll use my second “second” for Wood’s Empire of Liberty.
I would like to nominate:
Laura Edwards, People and Their Peace
And I’ll second:
Seth Rockman, Scraping By: Wage Labor, Slavery, and Survival in Early Baltimore
Stephanie Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora
Seconding:
Lyon, ‘Sex Among the Rabble’
Pasley, ‘Tyranny of Printers’
Fea, ‘Way of Improvement Leads Home’
Nominate:
Eric Schlereth – An Age of Infidels
Thomas Kidd – The Great Awakening
Steven Hackel – Children of Coyote, Missionaries of Saint Francis
Second:
Catherine Brekus – Sarah Osborn’s World
Linford Fisher – The Indian Great Awakening
Amanda Porterfield – Conceived in Doubt
Nominate:
Taylor, The Internal Enemy
Glasson, Mastering Christianity
Second:
Goetz, The Baptism of Early America
Brown, The Reaper’s Garden
Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery
Block, Rape and Sexual Power
Second:
Vincent Brown, Reaper’s Garden
Brett Rushforth, Bond’s of Allegiance
Edelson, Plantation Enterprise in Colonial South Carolina
Nominate:
Fred Anderson, Crucible of War
Nicholas Popper, Walter Ralegh’s History of the World and the Historical Culture of the Late Renaissance
Second:
DuVal, The Native Ground
Silver, Our Savage Neighbors
Gould, Among the Powers
I’ll second Snyder, *Slavery in Indian Country.*
And nominate Hammond, *Slavery, Freedom, and Expansion in the Early American West* (2007)
and Leonard Richards, *Shays’s Rebellion: The American Revolution’s Final Battle* (2003)
Second:
Johnson, River of Dark Dreams
Pearsall, Atlantic Families
Nominate:
Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought
Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial
Second:
Stephanie Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery
Rockman, Scraping By
Allgor, Parlor Politics
I’ll nominate
Alan Gallay, The Indian Slave Trade
Joyce Chaplin, Subject Matter
Brian Donahue, The Great Meadow
Second:
Jarvis, Eye of All Trade
Rediker & Linebaugh, Many-Headed Hydra
Hancock, Oceans of Wine
Nominate:
Osborn, Rum Maniacs
Block, Ordinary Lives in the Early Caribbean
Richter, Facing East
(Sorry if any of my nominations are actually “seconds.” I posted this on Twitter as soon as it was announced and didn’t realize votes only counted on the blog. I can’t see all the comments on my phone.)
Alright people, the nomination period is now closed. Check back soon for the brackets!
Second:
Richter, Facing East
Gallay, The Indian Slave Trade
Mapp, The Elusive West
Did nobody mention James Fichter, So Great A Proffitt? Is it too late to nominate it?