Bibliography for Elections in Early America Series

Want to learn more about elections and voting in early America? We’ve compiled a list of suggested books, articles, online resources, and BFW Episodes that you might find helpful. We either used these works ourselves for production research or they were suggested by our guests. Happy researching!

Ben Franklin's World Elections in Early America Series

Episode 284: Democracy & Voting in British America
Episode 285: Elections & Voting in the Early Republic
Episode 286: Elections in Early America: Native Sovereignty
Episode 287: Elections in Early America: Presidential Elections & the Electoral College
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  • Richard R. Beeman, The Varieties of Political Experience in Eighteenth-Century America
  • Carol Berkin, A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution
  • Christopher M. Bonner, Remaking the Republic: Black Politics and the Creation of American Citizenship
  • Robert Dinkin, Voting and Vote-Getting in American History 
  • Jay K. Dow, Electing the House: The Adoption and Performance of the U.S. Single-Member District Electoral System
  • George C. Edwards III, Why the Electoral College is Bad for America, 3rd edition
  • Stanley Elkins & Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism
  • Joanne B. Freeman, Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic 
  • Edward B. Foley, Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States
  • Martha S. Jones, Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America
  • Martha S. Jones, Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All
  • Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States 
  • Alexander Keyssar, Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?
  • James Kloppenberg, Toward Democracy: The Struggle for Self-Rule in European and American Thought 
  • William McLoughlin, Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic
  • Tiya Miles, Ties that Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom
  • Why You Can’t Teach United States History Without American Indians, eds. Jean M. O’Brien, Susan Sleeper Smith, & Juliana Barr
  • Jeffrey L. Pasley, The First Presidential Contest: 1796 and the Founding of American Democracy, American Presidential Elections
  • Theda Perdue and Michael Green, The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears 
  • Jack N. Rakove, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution 
  • Julie L. Reed, Severing the Nation: Cherokee Sovereignty and Social Welfare, 1800-1907
  • George William Van Cleve, We Have Not a Government: The Articles of Confederation and the Road to the Constitution 
  • David Waldstreicher, In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes
  • Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815
  •  Fay Yarborough, Race and the Cherokee Nation: Sovereignty in the Nineteenth Century
  • Rosemarie Zagarri, Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic
  • Edward Andrews, “Creatures of Mimic and Imitation: The Liberty Tree, Black Elections, and the Politicization of African Ceremonial Space” Radical History Review
    1. B. Bernstein, “A New Matrix for National Politics: The First Federal Elections, 1788-90,” in ed. Kenneth R. Bowling and Donald R. Kennon, Inventing Congress: Origins and Establishment of the First Federal Congress
  • Patricia Bonomi, “Political Patterns in Colonial New York City: The General Assembly Election of 1768,” Political Science Quarterly 
  • Wilfred Codrington III, “The Electoral College’s Racist Origins,” The Atlantic, November 17, 2019 
  • Elizabeth Ellis, “Petite Nation with Powerful Networks: The Tunicas in the Eighteenth Century,” Louisiana History
  • Luke Feder, “No Lawyer in the Assembly: Character Politics and the Election of 1768 in New York City” New York History
  • Joanne B. Freeman, “A Qualified Revolution: The Election of 1800,” in A Blackwell Companion to Thomas Jefferson, edited by Francis D. Cogliano
  • Joshua D. Hawley, “The Transformative Twelfth Amendment,” William & Mary Law Review 
    1. Tsianina Lomawaima, “The Mutuality of Citizenship and Sovereignty: The Society of American Indians and the Battle to Inherit America,” Studies in American Indian Literatures
  • Michael McCoy, “Working People and the Making of the Philadelphia Election Riot of 1742,” Pennsylvania History
  • William McLaughlin, “Thomas Jefferson and the Beginning of Cherokee Nationalism, 1806-1809,” WMQ, 1975
  • William McLaughlin, “Cherokees and Methodists, 1824-1834,” Church History, 1981
  • William McLaughlin, “The Experiment in Cherokee Citizenship, 1817-1829,” Church History, 1981
  • Gary Nash, “The Transformation of Urban Politics, 1700-1765,” Journal of American History
  • Theda Perdue, “Clan and Court: Another Look at the Early Cherokee Republic,” American Indian Quarterly
  • Theda Perdue, “The Conflict Within: The Cherokee Power Structure and Removal,” The Georgia Historical Quarterly
  • Theda Perdue, “John Ross and the Cherokees,” The Georgia Historical Quarterly
  • Theda Perdue, “Rising from the Ashes: The Cherokee Phoenix as an Ethnohistorical Source,” Ethnohistory
  • Theda Perdue, “Traditionalism in the Cherokee Nation: Resistance to the Constitution of 1827,” The Georgia Historical Quarterly
  • Shlomo Slonim, “The Electoral College at Philadelphia: The Evolution of an Ad Hoc Congress for the Selection of a President,” Journal of American HIstory
  • Amy Watson, “The New York Patriot Movement: Partisanship, the Free Press, and Britain’s Imperial Constitution, 1731–39” The William and Mary Quarterly
  • Shane White, “It was a Proud Day: African Americans, Festivals, and Parades in the North,” Journal of American History
  • Michael Witgen, “Seeing Red: Race, Citizenship, and Indigeneity in the Old Northwest,” Journal of the Early Republic
  • McGirt v. Oklahoma, 2019
  • New Jersey Election Acts, An Act to regulate the Election of Members of the Legislative-Council and General Assembly, Sheriffs and Coroners, in the Counties of Bergen, Monmouth, Burlington, Gloucester, Salem, Hunterdon and Sussex.
  • Office of the Historian, U.S. House of Representatives, Origins of the House of Representatives: A Documentary Record (1990)
  • The First Federal Elections, 1788-1790, eds. Merrill Jenson and Robert Becker, 4 vols. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976)
  • Treaty of New Echota, 1835

Episodes of Ben Franklin's World

040 Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon, For Fear of an Elective King
107 Mary Sarah Bilder, Madison’s Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention
131 Frank Cogliano, Thomas Jefferson’s Empire of Liberty
143 Michael Klarman, The Making of the United States Constitution
179 George Van Cleve, We Have Not A Government: The Articles of Confederation and the Road to the Constitution
188 Terri Halperin, The Alien & Sedition Acts of 1798
193 Barbara Oberg and Sara Georgini, Partisans, the Friendship & Rivalry of Adams & Jefferson
202 Matt Wasniewski and Terrance Rucker, The Early History of the United States Congress
277 Whose Fourth of July?
284 Elections in Early America: Democracy & Voting in British America
285 Elections in Early America: Elections & Voting in the Early Republic
286 Elections in Early America: Native American Sovereignty
287 Elections in Early America: Presidential Elections & The Electoral College

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