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Zusatztext This analysis is a useful addition to the growing corpus reinterpreting the mind and spirit of the antebellum South. Klappentext This groundbreaking study of the politics of secession combines traditional political history with current work in anthropology and gender and ritual studies. Christopher J. Olsen has drawn on local election returns! rural newspapers! manuscripts! and numerous county records to sketch a newpicture of the intricate and colorful world of local politics. In particular! he demonstrates how the move toward secession in Mississippi was deeply influenced by the demands of masculinity within the state's antiparty political culture. Face-to-face relationships and personal reputations! organized around neighborhood networks of friends and extended kin! were at the heart of antebellum Mississippi politics. The intimate! public nature of this tradition allowed voters to assess each candidate's individual status and fitness forpublic leadership. Key virtues were independence and physical courage! as well as reliability and loyalty to the community! and the political culture offered numerous chances to demonstrate all of these (sometimes contradictory) qualities. Like dueling and other male rituals! voting and running foroffice helped set the boundaries of class and power. They also helped mediate the conflicts between nineteenth-century American egalitarianism! democracy! and geographic mobility! and the South's exaggerated patriarchal hierarchy! sustained by honor and slavery. The political system! however! functioned effectively only as long as it remained a personal exercise between individuals! divorced from the anonymity of institutional parties. This antiparty tradition eliminated the distinction between men as individuals and as public representatives! which causedthemto assess and interpret all political events and rhetoric in a personal manner. The election of 1860 and success of the Republicans' antisouthern! free soil program! therefore! presented an "insulting" challenge to personal! family! and community honor. As Olsen shows in d Zusammenfassung Political Culture and Secession in Mississippi explores the connections between gender, honour, and electoral politics, and argues that secession resulted from the demands and implications of masculinity within the state's antiparty political culture. Using evidence from local election returns, rural newspapers, manuscripts, and numerous county records, the work sketches a new picture of the varied and colourful world of local politics. It also advances a model of political culture that draws from several disciplines, mixing social science and traditional political history with anthropology and gender and ritual studies.Mississippi's political culture evolved as a system that relied on face-to-face relationships and personal reputation, organized around neighbourhood networks of friends and extended kin. The intimate, public nature of this local setting allowed voters to assess each candidate's individual status and fitness for public leadership. Above all other masculine virtues, men valued independence and physical courage, but also reliability and loyalty to community. The political culture offered numerous chances to demonstrate all of these (sometimes contradictory) qualities, and like duelling and other male rituals, voting and running for office helped set the boundaries of class and power. It mediated between the conflicting values of nineteenth-century American egalitarianism and democracy and the South's exaggerated patriarchal hierarchy, which was sustained by honour and slavery.But the political system functioned effectively only as long as it remained a personal exercise between individuals, divorced from the bureaucratic anonymity of institutional parties. Therefore, the state's dominant political culture was its local, fiercely loyal antiparty tradition that conflated the distinction betwee...
