A Nation of Descendants

In the first two pages of her book A Nation of Descendants, Francesca Morgan makes a key point that opens new possibilities for her exploration of genealogy: politics is about far more than government institutions. At times, Morgan argues, genealogy was tied to government institutions and policies, but most often its political import was as a tool of power for reifying social hierarchies and solidifying white Protestant supremacy in America. In order to prove this argument, Morgan looks beyond the typical subjects of histories of genealogy—white New England Protestants—to examine how marginalized groups both shaped and were shaped by the quest for family histories. This story of genealogy is usefully clarifying about Americans’ long-running obsession with their family roots. The first of the book’s two parts covers what Morgan calls “arguments about exclusion” in the period before 1960. Chapter one, the only chapter primarily focused on the nineteenth century,...

Argument (complex analysis) · Family tree · Genealogy · Government (linguistics) · Order (exchange) · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Protestantism · Sociology · White (mutation) · Canadian Identity and History · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Philosophy · Race, History, and American Society