Founding Fanatics Extremism and the Formation of American Democracy

Since the American Revolution, scholars and citizens have often assumed that dispassionate rationality, reciprocity, and nonviolent tolerance are necessary conditions for the sustained development of democracy. Accordingly, they reject oppositional parties that spurn consensus and terms of mutual respect--and often use force to accomplish their political goals--denouncing extremists as irrational and antidemocratic. Founding Fanatics questions this understanding, examining how moments of tension, violence, and extremism in the United States have sometimes served the pursuit of political equality. Noah Eber-Schmid focuses his analysis on the American Founding era, presenting case studies of the early memorialization of the Boston Massacre, popular debates over Shays' Rebellion, the thought and practices of the Democratic Societies, and the use of the French Revolution in political discourse. From this historical account of popular politics in the Founding era, Eber-Schmid draws new insights for theoretical approaches to contemporary American democracy, challenging assumptions that extremism is always a negative or antidemocratic force. By recognizing the role that democratic extremism has played in the development of American popular democracy, political theorists and citizens will better understand how such movements may contribute to the struggle to deepen and expand political equality and participation that continues today.

1 - Introduction: Extremism, Democratic Politics, and the Founding
2 - Patriots in the Court of Pandemonium: People, Paradox, and the Making of Zealots
3 - Hostis Reipublicae: Extremism and Perception in an American Insurrection
4 - The Language of Faction: Extreme Speech, Public Opinion, and Popular Democracy in the Early Republic
5 - American Jacobinism: The French Revolution, Anti-Jacobinism, and the Fear of Democratic Extremes
6 - Extremism and the Tragedy of American Democracy

Noah Eber-Schmid is a political theorist and Assistant Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington. His work has appeared in the journals American Political Thought and The Review of Politics. He previously taught at Bucknell University, the University of Oregon, and Rutgers University. His research is focused on the history of American political thought and contemporary democratic theory, emphasizing political extremism, popular democracy, and the people in the past and present of American politics.