Maurizio Valsania's Books

First Among Men

George Washington and the Myth of American Masculinity

By: Maurizio Valsania

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First Among Men

George Washington and the Myth of American Masculinity

By: Maurizio Valsania

The first, definitive recasting of George Washington in the context of eighteenth-century practices and ideals of masculinity. It answers the fundamental question that no biography has ever asked in such a direct way: What do we know, really, about Washington as an actual eighteenth-century Virginia upper-class male?"--

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416

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JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

142144447X

ISBN 13

9781421444475

First Among Men

George Washington and the Myth of American Masculinity

By: Maurizio Valsania

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First Among Men

George Washington and the Myth of American Masculinity

By: Maurizio Valsania

Dispelling common myths about the first US president and revealing the real George Washington. Finalist of the George Washington Book Prize by the George Washington's Mount Vernon George Washington—hero of the French and Indian War, commander in chief of the Continental Army, and first president of the United States—died on December 14, 1799. The myth-making began immediately thereafter, and the Washington mythos crafted after his death remains largely intact. But what do we really know about Washington as an upper-class man? Washington is frequently portrayed by his biographers as America at its unflinching best: tall, shrewd, determined, resilient, stalwart, and tremendously effective in action. But this aggressive and muscular version of Washington is largely a creation of the nineteenth century. Eighteenth-century ideals of upper-class masculinity would have preferred a man with refined aesthetic tastes, graceful and elegant movements, and the ability and willingness to clearly articulate his emotions. At the same time, these eighteenth-century men subjected themselves to intense hardship and inflicted incredible amounts of violence on each other, their families, their neighbors, and the people they enslaved. In First Among Men: George Washington and the Myth of American Masculinity, Valsania considers Washington's complexity and apparent contradictions in three main areas: his physical life (often bloody, cold, injured, muddy, or otherwise unpleasant), his emotional world (sentimental, loving, and affectionate), and his social persona (carefully constructed and maintained). In each, he notes, the reality diverges from the legend quite drastically. Ultimately, Valsania challenges readers to reconsider what they think they know about Washington. Aided by new research, documents, and objects that have only recently come to light, First Among Men tells the fascinating story of a living and breathing person who loved, suffered, moved, gestured, dressed, ate, drank, and had sex in ways that may be surprising to many Americans. In this accessible, detailed narrative, Valsania presents a full, complete portrait of Washington as readers have rarely seen him before: as a man, a son, a father, and a friend.

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416

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JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1421444488

ISBN 13

9781421444482

The Limits of Optimism

Thomas Jefferson's Dualistic Enlightenment

By: Maurizio Valsania

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The Limits of Optimism

Thomas Jefferson's Dualistic Enlightenment

By: Maurizio Valsania

The Limits of Optimism works to dispel persistent notions about Jefferson’s allegedly paradoxical and sphinx-like quality. Maurizio Valsania shows that Jefferson’s multifaceted character and personality are to a large extent the logical outcome of an anti-metaphysical, enlightened, and humility-oriented approach to reality. That Jefferson’s mind and priorities changed over time and in response to changing circumstances indicates neither incoherence, hypocrisy, nor pathology. Valsania’s reading of Jefferson, the Enlightenment, and negativity helps to make sense of the many paradoxes typically associated with that eighteenth-century thinker. At the same time, it provides a corrective to the common though erroneous equation of Enlightenment thinking with rationalism and shallow optimism.

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220

Publisher

University of Virginia Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813931517

ISBN 13

9780813931517

The French Enlightenment in America

Essays on the Times of the Founding Fathers

By: Paul Merrill Spurlin,Maurizio Valsania

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The French Enlightenment in America

Essays on the Times of the Founding Fathers

By: Paul Merrill Spurlin,Maurizio Valsania

The French Enlightenment in America offers an overview of French American cultural relations during the French Enlightenment. The essays in this volume explore the literary presence of French authors in America between 1760 and 1800 and the reception of their writings by the Founding Fathers and other Americans. These essays explore such topics as the Founding Fathers’ knowledge of French, the philosophes, Voltaire in the South, and more. The Georgia Open History Library has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this collection, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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222

Publisher

University of Georgia Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0820359300

ISBN 13

9780820359304

Jefferson's Body

A Corporeal Biography

By: Maurizio Valsania

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Jefferson's Body

A Corporeal Biography

By: Maurizio Valsania

What did Thomas Jefferson look like? How did he carry himself? Such questions, reasonable to ask as we look back on a person who lived in an era before photography, are the starting point for this boldly original new work. Maurizio Valsania considers all aspects of Jefferson’s complex conception of "the body," from eighteenth-century clothing and fashion to manners, adornment, posture, gesture, and visual and material culture. Drawing also from the fields of medical science, psychology, and cultural anthropology, the author conjures a vivid and detailed re-creation of the third president as a living, breathing—and pondering—human being. Having situated Jefferson in his own body, Valsania looks at the embodied Jefferson in the world of his fellow humans. Any one of the other people in Jefferson’s society—whether that other person was male or female, free or enslaved, African American or Native American—was a critical counterexample for the eighteenth-century Virginian to define himself against, and Valsania’s explorations here lead to numerous insightful discoveries about race, gender, and structures of power. The first comprehensive exploration of Jefferson’s corporeal world, Jefferson’s Body brings the man vividly to life for the modern reader while deepening our understanding of what it meant to Jefferson to be alive.

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320

Publisher

University of Virginia Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813939690

ISBN 13

9780813939698

Nature's Man

Thomas Jefferson's Philosophical Anthropology

By: Maurizio Valsania

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Nature's Man

Thomas Jefferson's Philosophical Anthropology

By: Maurizio Valsania

Although scholars have adequately covered Thomas Jefferson’s general ideas about human nature and race, this is the first book to examine what Maurizio Valsania terms Jefferson’s "philosophical anthropology"—philosophical in the sense that he concerned himself not with describing how humans are, culturally or otherwise, but with the kind of human being Jefferson thought he was, wanted to become, and wished for citizens to be for the future of the United States. Valsania’s exploration of this philosophical anthropology touches on Jefferson’s concepts of nationalism, slavery, gender roles, modernity, affiliation, and community. More than that, Nature's Man shows how Jefferson could advocate equality and yet control and own other human beings. A humanist who asserted the right of all people to personal fulfillment, Jefferson nevertheless had a complex philosophy that also acknowledged the dynamism of nature and the limits of human imagination. Despite Jefferson's famous advocacy of apparently individualistic rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, Valsania argues that both Jefferson's yearning for the human individual to become something good and his fear that this hypothetical being would turn into something bad were rooted in a specific form of communitarianism. Absorbing and responding to certain moral-philosophical currents in Europe, Jefferson’s nature-infused vision underscored the connection between the individual and the community.

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303

Publisher

University of Virginia Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813933587

ISBN 13

9780813933580

The Limits of Optimism

Thomas Jefferson's Dualistic Enlightenment

By: Maurizio Valsania

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The Limits of Optimism

Thomas Jefferson's Dualistic Enlightenment

By: Maurizio Valsania

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Page Count

220

Publisher

University of Virginia Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813931517

ISBN 13

9780813931517

Nature's Man

Thomas Jefferson's Philosophical Anthropology

By: Maurizio Valsania

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Nature's Man

Thomas Jefferson's Philosophical Anthropology

By: Maurizio Valsania

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Page Count

303

Publisher

University of Virginia Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813933587

ISBN 13

9780813933580

Jefferson's Body

A Corporeal Biography

By: Maurizio Valsania

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Jefferson's Body

A Corporeal Biography

By: Maurizio Valsania

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

320

Publisher

University of Virginia Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813939690

ISBN 13

9780813939698

Book's by Maurizio Valsania

First Among Men

First Among Men

First Among Men

First Among Men

The Limits of Optimism

The Limits of Optimism

The French Enlightenment in America

The French Enlightenment in America

Jefferson's Body

Jefferson's Body

Nature's Man

Nature's Man

The Limits of Optimism

The Limits of Optimism

Nature's Man

Nature's Man

Jefferson's Body

Jefferson's Body

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