LEADER 04148nam 2200673Ia 450 001 9910465496103321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a0-674-06479-8 010 $a0-674-06869-6 024 7 $a10.4159/harvard.9780674064799 035 $a(CKB)2560000000082527 035 $a(OCoLC)794003563 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10568053 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000659474 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11376799 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000659474 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10696580 035 $a(PQKB)10112320 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3301109 035 $a(DE-B1597)178155 035 $a(OCoLC)840443332 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780674064799 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3301109 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10568053 035 $a(EXLCZ)992560000000082527 100 $a20110523d2012 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aWe shall be no more$b[electronic resource] $esuicide and self-government in the newly United States /$fRichard Bell 210 $aCambridge, Mass. $cHarvard University Press$d2012 215 $a1 online resource (345 p.) 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 $a0-674-06372-4 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p.[269]-317) and index. 327 $t Frontmatter -- $tContents -- $tIntroduction: Alarming Progress -- $t1. Suicide and the State of the Union -- $t2. The Sorrows of Young Readers -- $t3. Saving Sinking Strangers -- $t4. Wounds in the Belly of the State -- $t5. The Threshold of Heaven -- $t6. The Problem of Slave Resistance -- $tConclusion: Martyrs on the Altar of the Nation -- $tNotes -- $tAcknowledgments -- $tIndex 330 $aSuicide is a quintessentially individual act, yet one with unexpectedly broad social implications. Though seen today as a private phenomenon, in the uncertain aftermath of the American Revolution this personal act seemed to many to be a public threat that held no less than the fate of the fledgling Republic in its grip.Salacious novelists and eager newspapermen broadcast images of a young nation rapidly destroying itself. Parents, physicians, ministers, and magistrates debated the meaning of self-destruction and whether it could (or should) be prevented. Jailers and justice officials rushed to thwart condemned prisoners who made halters from bedsheets, while abolitionists used slave suicides as testimony to both the ravages of the peculiar institution and the humanity of its victims. Struggling to create a viable political community out of extraordinary national turmoil, these interest groups invoked self-murder as a means to confront the most consequential questions facing the newly united states: What is the appropriate balance between individual liberty and social order? Who owns the self? And how far should the control of the state (or the church, or a husband, or a master) extend over the individual?With visceral prose and an abundance of evocative primary sources, Richard Bell lays bare the ways in which self-destruction in early America was perceived as a transgressive challenge to embodied authority, a portent of both danger and possibility. His unique study of suicide between the Revolution and Reconstruction uncovers what was at stake-personally and politically-in the nation's fraught first decades. 606 $aSuicide in mass media 606 $aSuicide$xMoral and ethical aspects$zUnited States 606 $aSuicide$xPolitical aspects$zUnited States 606 $aSuicide$xSocial aspects$zUnited States 606 $aSuicide$zUnited States$xHistory 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aSuicide in mass media. 615 0$aSuicide$xMoral and ethical aspects 615 0$aSuicide$xPolitical aspects 615 0$aSuicide$xSocial aspects 615 0$aSuicide$xHistory. 676 $a362.280973 700 $aBell$b Richard$f1978-$01036186 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910465496103321 996 $aWe shall be no more$92456372 997 $aUNINA