Delves into the dream world of ordinary Americans and finds that as their self-perception increased, transforming them on a personal level, so did a revolutionary spirit that wrought momentous political changes. This book is intended for specialists in the fields of American and African-American history.
"Mechal Sobel has written an important, marvelously original book, gracefully written. . . . It is the first book in a long time that takes as its subject the psychological meaning of living through the American Revolutionary Era, not for one or a few individuals who left enormous bodies of personal papers (e.g. Thomas Jefferson) but a wide range of 'ordinary' people--white and black, male and female. This book will force many historians to examine skeptically much that they thought they knew."--Linda K. Kerber, author of "No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship"
"Mechal Sobal's
Teach Me Dreams will grip readers from the first page to the last, sweeping them up in her vision of self-formation in the revolutionary era. The book's multi-faceted approach to issues of self and identity brings new insight and rigor to the field. . . . This is a wonderfully original book, certain to delight, provoke, and inspire for years to come."
---Nicole Eustace, Journal of Social History
