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Kristin A. Olbertson, The Dreadful Word: Speech Crime and Polite Gentlemen in Massachusetts

Kristin A. Olbertson, The Dreadful Word: Speech Crime and Polite Gentlemen in Massachusetts BOOK REVIEWS Kristin A. Olbertson, The Dreadful Word: Speech Crime and Polite Gentlemen in Massachusetts, 1690–1776 (CUP, Cambridge 2022), pp. 323, $59.99 (hardcover). ISBN 978-1-009-09890-8 It is often said that words paint pictures, but The Dreadful Word is a book of sound, in which Kristin Olbertson mines the court records of eighteenth-century Massachusetts for speech crimes and, in the process, allows the reader to listen in on the conversations and frustrations—the noise—of rich and poor alike during the Bay colony’s transition from Puritan commonwealth to revolutionary hotbed. Carefully sifting and classifying the cases she uncovers, Olbertson argues that during this time, Massachusetts courts shifted their concerns about deviant speech from punishing sin to policing violations of the ‘code of politeness’, linked to ‘new ideals of elite white masculinity’ (p 2). In the eighteenth century, ‘a distinct cadre of politely pious men’ came to ‘define itself in contrast to the vulgar, the impious, and the unmanly’ (p 38). The idea of ‘the peace’ changed to reflect these new values, and as Massachusetts courts heard these cases, pronounced their verdicts, and punished offenders, their lit- igants and justices also performed and created the new order, one in which ‘genteel masculinity—gentlemanliness—joined godliness http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png American Journal of Legal History Oxford University Press

Kristin A. Olbertson, The Dreadful Word: Speech Crime and Polite Gentlemen in Massachusetts

Lowe, Jessica
American Journal of Legal History , Volume 62 (4): 3 – Feb 10, 2023
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Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com
ISSN
0002-9319
eISSN
2161-797X
DOI
10.1093/ajlh/njad001
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS Kristin A. Olbertson, The Dreadful Word: Speech Crime and Polite Gentlemen in Massachusetts, 1690–1776 (CUP, Cambridge 2022), pp. 323, $59.99 (hardcover). ISBN 978-1-009-09890-8 It is often said that words paint pictures, but The Dreadful Word is a book of sound, in which Kristin Olbertson mines the court records of eighteenth-century Massachusetts for speech crimes and, in the process, allows the reader to listen in on the conversations and frustrations—the noise—of rich and poor alike during the Bay colony’s transition from Puritan commonwealth to revolutionary hotbed. Carefully sifting and classifying the cases she uncovers, Olbertson argues that during this time, Massachusetts courts shifted their concerns about deviant speech from punishing sin to policing violations of the ‘code of politeness’, linked to ‘new ideals of elite white masculinity’ (p 2). In the eighteenth century, ‘a distinct cadre of politely pious men’ came to ‘define itself in contrast to the vulgar, the impious, and the unmanly’ (p 38). The idea of ‘the peace’ changed to reflect these new values, and as Massachusetts courts heard these cases, pronounced their verdicts, and punished offenders, their lit- igants and justices also performed and created the new order, one in which ‘genteel masculinity—gentlemanliness—joined godliness

Journal

American Journal of Legal History – Oxford University Press

Published: Feb 10, 2023

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