Petitioning, Democracy, and American Empire

communities throughout North America were then deployed by political elites to silence these very voices and reverse the impulse toward the ever-elusive goal of a truly diverse democracy. Democracy by Petition represents social science history at its very best. It draws on and contributes to multiple disciplinary traditions, and scholars in many fields will learn from it, add to its findings—and argue with it in constructive ways, as this symposium demonstrates. In its shadow, none of us who are concerned about the travails of American democracy and the course of democratization in American political development will be able to go about our work in quite the same way.