The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It Setting & Symbolism

The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It Objects/Places

The United States

The country of origin for all of the book's major characters

The Constitutional Convention

Largely where the story begins and where the Constitution was created. The document embodied the political philosophy popular in the late eighteenth century but was altered over time to reflect changes in public opinion.

Virginia

Perhaps the center of political life for many of the early characters in the book. Many American Founders were raised there and rose to political power there as well, particularly Thomas Jefferson

Monticello

Jefferson's famed plantation.

The South

The Southern states in the Union, which included Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia and came to include Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida. Calhoun was the senator from South Carolina and Jackson came from Kentucky. Woodrow Wilson was also a Southerner originally. Many of the Southern states seceded in the mid nineteenth century, which precipitated the Civil War

The North

The original states of the Union, which at...
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