Junto March Madness 2014: Sweet 16 Results!

It was a bad day for top seeds in Junto March Madness, with a number of big names falling at the Sweet 16 stage. Competition was fierce, with some matchups receiving as many as 350 votes, and now eight books remain, all vying for a bid to the Junto Final Four. Find out who after the jump!

There are now no number 1 seeds left in the tournament. In one of the marquee contests of the Sweet 16, Alan Taylor fell to Daniel Richter’s Facing East From Indian Country. Given that Taylor’s was the most nominated book in the entire tournament, Richter must be favored to progress to the Final Four, but he will face a strong challenge from Rebecca Anne Goetz, whose The Baptism of Early Virginia continued a strong tournament with a big victory over Eliga Gould’s Among the Powers of the Earth.

If Taylor’s loss was an upset, Brackets Two and Three saw even greater surprises, with number one seeds Pekka Hämäläinen and Seth Rockman losing to Jennifer Morgan and Michael Jarvis, respectively. If it was a bad day for number one seeds, though, the remaining 2-seeds performed strongly, with Annette Gordon-Reed and T H Breen making it to the Elite Eight, too. Breen will face a tough challenge from Woody Holton’s Unruly Americans, which prevailed over Rosemarie Zagarri’s Revolutionary Backlash.

In the day’s other contest, Brett Rushforth prevailed over William and Mary colleague Paul Mapp, and will face Morgan in the Elite Eight. Full results and forthcoming matchups can be found below. Voting on the Elite Eight will take place tomorrow, on Wednesday March 26th. Please join in the discussion, either in the comment thread or on Twitter, using the hashtag #JMM14. And don’t forget to come back on Wednesday to decide who makes it to the Final Four!

BRACKET ONE [transnational/religion]

1. Alan Taylor, The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies 35%
lost to 4. Daniel Richter, Facing East From Indian Country: A Native History of Early America 65%

10. Eliga Gould, Among the Powers of the Earth: The American Revolution and the Making of a New World Empire 38%
lost to 6. Rebecca Anne Goetz, The Baptism of Early Virginia: How Christianity Created Race 62%

BRACKET TWO [race/Native American/gender]

1. Pekka Hämäläinen, The Comanche Empire 45%
lost to 12. Jennifer Morgan, Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World Slavery 55%

10. Paul Mapp, The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire, 1713-1763 39%
lost to 3. Brett Rushforth, Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France 61%

BRACKET THREE [race/slavery]

1. Seth Rockman, Scraping By: Wage Labor, Slavery, and Survival in Early Baltimore 45%
lost to 13. Michael Jarvis, In The Eye of All Trade: Bermuda, Bermudians, and the Maritime Atlantic World, 1680-1783 55%

2. Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family 60%
beat 3. Vincent Brown, The Reaper’s Garden: Death and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery 40%

BRACKET FOUR [political]

8. Woody Holton, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution 54%
beat 5. Rosemarie Zagarri, Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic 46%

2. T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence 64%
beat 6. Seth Cotlar, Tom Paine’s America: The Rise and Fall of Transatlantic Radicalism Republic 36%