You’ve had a day to contemplate Round 1 results, mourn or celebrate the state of your brackets, and think about your next choices. And now it’s time for Round 2.
Voting on brackets 1 and 2 closes at midnight EST. We ask that you only vote once for each matchup—we do, however, encourage spreading the word to friends, strangers, young children, your students, inanimate objects, and all those with a passing interest in early American history.
As with last year, we’re hoping this tournament of champions will provoke lively discussion. So, what do you think? Who got cut in the last round and would’ve been a game-changer in this one? Who looks like they’re headed straight to the finals? Who’s your favorite? Remember, our primary goal with all this is to spark discussion. So let us know, either in the comments, or on Twitter using the hashtag #JMM14.
And now for the voting:
BRACKET ONE
BRACKET TWO
The Junto 
In today’s event, only the Jasanoff-Goetz match up stirs my imagination. Which will the Junto’s readers’ choose? Will it be the multiple award winning Liberty’s Exiles, or will it be the book I championed last year which so few people read due to its late release date and price tag.
My choice is The Baptism of Early Virginia and the upset. I believe it is an important book and will still be discussed many years from now. (Hope I didn’t just jinx it!)
In my opinion, tomorrow’s brackets are the ones which might be unpredictable. I am eager and apprehensive to see the results of the Johnson and Gordon-Reed match up, the Zagarri-Maier match up (BTW Zagarri could be set to become the bracket buster), and the most painful choice for me tomorrow will be the Edling-Cotlar match up. I love both books. I think Edling has written what is for me, the definitive account of the Federalist rationale for he new government, which finally breaks the profession free of the sterile and wrong headed century long Progressive-Counterprogressive debate.
I absolutely love the Cotlar book. This book and his essay on Joseph Gales in the compilation The Revolution of 1800: Democracy, Race, and the New Republic will have to be dealt with by any scholar who wishes to argue about the progressiveness of mainstream Jeffersonians. The dissertation from which this book was derived was written many years ago, but the publishing was serendipitous. This book came out while the Occupy protests were occurring, and I will forever remember smiling as I read his brief account of William Paley’s “The Parable of the Pigeons” and Charles Pigott’s reply on behalf of the 99 percent of the 1790s.
Hopefully, I have provided enough kindling to ignite today’s conversation.
Dear Good luck charm, please carry on.