“Transferring the British Club Model to the American Colonies: Mapping Spaces and Networks of Power (1720-70)”

This paper aims to analyse the interactions of space, mobility, and power in the history of early American clubs, through the study of a specific institution exported from Britain to its colonies. Indissolubly linked to urbanisation, commercial growth and the expansion of the press, club sociability perfectly answered people’s need for social integration, sharing cultural values and collective improvement. A close examination of the main vectors and modes of transfer of the British club model across the Atlantic will enable us to map its colonial destiny from 1700 to 1776. This phenomenon tells us about the way ideas circulated and social practices were reproduced and adapted in major colonial cities and ports, about the role some individual men and circles of men played in the success of colonial clubs, about the formation of the social, political and cultural colonial elites. How far did early American clubs represent spaces of power? What influence did they have on the constitution of the new local elites? How would these gentlemen use club membership as part of their status identity and their building of networks?

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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