Chapter 4: Novel Democracy: Readers, Evidence, and the CommonplaceBook of Elizabeth Phillips Payson, 1806–25.
The article examines the relationship between novel reading and the development of a democratic conscience, exploring how novels enable readers to approach evidence with nuance and critical thinking. It discusses the role of novels in assessing evidence, contrasting the traditional domains of scienc...
| Published in: | Transactions of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 112; no. 3; pp. 75 - 95 |
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| Format: | Article |
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University of Pennsylvania Press
2023
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| Summary: | The article examines the relationship between novel reading and the development of a democratic conscience, exploring how novels enable readers to approach evidence with nuance and critical thinking. It discusses the role of novels in assessing evidence, contrasting the traditional domains of science and law. Through the case study of historian Elizabeth Phillips Payson, it illustrates how novel reading in the Early Republic facilitated critical thinking about politics and human behavior. |
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