HIST 1017, Seminar Week 5
Early American Masculinity
In this week’s seminar at we look at two selections from Mark E. Kann’s 1998 book
A Republic of Men: The American Founders, Gendered Language, and Patriarchal
Politics. Kann is better known as a political scientist than a historian, and his book
received lukewarm reviews from historians of colonial America. While they agreed
with most of his main contentions in the book, many historians questioned whether
he added anything to the pre-existing scholarship. For example, Catherine Kaplan
(O’Donnell), wrote in a review “A Republic of Men is clearly written and intellectually
ambitious; whom its audience within the historical community might be is, however,
an open question. Those already involved in the study of gender and the early
republic will find little new research or analysis here; though sympathetic to Kann's
sense that, as Joan Scott would have it, ‘politics constructs gender and gender
constructs politics,’ they may well be frustrated by the book's tendency to collect
current scholarship rather than advancing any one element of it.”1 That said, the
final chapter (chapter 7 which we have here) does give a good overview of much of
the scholarship on gender in colonial society.
Discussion Questions
pp. 1-4
This is the author’s introduction; what is the main argument of the
book that he outlines here? What does he mean by the term ‘grammar
of manhood’? We’ve encountered the argument that there is a direct
connection between language and power; with which French
philosopher/historian do we associate this connection?
p. 155
What are the four ranks of men the author distinguishes in the
founding fathers’ ‘grammar of manhood’?
pp. 156-158 Durable Manhood: What reasons does the author give to explain the
durability of the founding fathers’ typology of masculinity?
pp. 159-163 Manhood against Individualism: According to the author, how has the
founders’ grammar of manhood’ weaved its way into contemporary
society? Why are they so persistent?
pp. 163-167 How, according to the author, did the founders reconcile man’s
procreative nature and masculinity?
pp. 167-170 According to the author, what did the founding fathers see as the basis
for social standing?
1
Catherine Kaplan. Review of Kann, Mark E., A Republic of Men: The American
Founders, Gendered Language and Patriarchal Politics. H-SHEAR, H-Net Reviews.
February, 1999. URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=2804
pp. 170-173 In what ways, according to the author, did the founding fathers’ views
on gender and politics survive?
pp. 173-177 According to the author, in what ways did the founders’ ‘grammar of
manhood’ promote patriarchy?