This thesis examines the ways in which spirituality as a religious form interacts with political economy in the United States. Based on 22 months fieldwork in two small Northern Arizona towns, Sedona and Valle, it traces the way spirituality is enacted by individuals through foodways, bodily practice, and relationships to nature. I argue that it is pursued as an alternative to ‘mainstream’ American values, often summed up by my informants in the ideal of the ‘American dream’. For them, the American dream is that any individual can succeed in a meritocratic system through hard work, increase their economic prosperity from one generation to the next, and pursuing this will lead to personal happiness and fulfilment. Pursuing one’s spiritual path means foregrounding personal happiness and fulfilment often at the expense of economic prosperity. Spirituality is an alternative way of living and of making a living. This renegotiation of traditional American values is held to be the necessary response to the political, economic, and environmental crises of late capitalism. Spirituality is a category of growing salience for many Americans; while its genealogy remains complex and usage fluid, it has come to mean something specific for my informants, referring to what was once known, often pejoratively, as ‘new age’. This thesis delineates the religious form called spirituality, defining it as a constellation of beliefs and practices clustered around the central concept of ‘energy’ as an all-pervasive force; ‘the universe’ as a pantheistic conception of divinity; and progressive stages of enlightenment described as a ‘spiritual path’. The centring of the individual in spirituality mirrors the emphasis on individual responsibility at the heart of neoliberal policies implemented by successive governments since the late 1970s. At the same time, the expansion of agency to all nonhuman actors in spirituality destabilises the notion of human superiority as well as American exceptionalism. In this way, spirituality presents a challenge to dominant discourses in American society at the same time as it is constrained by the limits of those discourses.

The history of the United States’ revolutionary origins has been a persistently prevalent source of reference in the public speeches of modern American presidents. Through an examination of the character and context of allusions to this history in presidential rhetoric since 1945, this thesis presents an explanation for this ubiquity. America’s founding heritage represents a valuable – indeed, an essential – source for the purposes of presidential oratory. An analysis of the manner in which presidents from Harry Truman to Barack Obama have invoked and adapted specific aspects of this heritage in their public rhetoric exposes a distinctly usable past, employed in different contexts and in advancing specific messages. Chapters devoted to the references of modern presidents to the Declaration of Independence, to the Constitution, and to four of the nation’s Founding Fathers, demonstrate that distinct elements of the founding heritage can be invoked in different ways. In sum, however, they reveal that allusions to this history have served three, sometimes overlapping, purposes in modern presidential discourse. Firstly, and most commonly, this history has proved an essential source on the numerous occasions in which presidents have reflected upon and reaffirmed the enduring character of American national identity. Secondly, such is the prominence of the founding heritage in the collective memory of Americans that presidents have been able to invoke elements of this familiar history pertinent to their discussion of a diverse range of contemporary concerns. Finally, and most significantly, this rhetoric has very often been applied for more pragmatic and partisan reasons. Given the veneration of the founding heritage in American culture and the acceptance that the democratic ideals then established remain essential to the purpose and direction of the nation, this thesis argues that presidents have found political value in implying their own inheritance of the Founders’ incontestable legacy. In speeches delivered across the shifting contexts of the post-war period, presidents have explicitly aligned their policy goals with the values and vision of the nation’s first leaders, interpreting and adapting the Founders’ words in a manner supportive of their public message.

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From its formation, the American federal government partnered with private organizations to accomplish state goals. With little formal organizational capacity, the American state relied on the resources and credibility of private organizations. This thesis investigates the success of public-private partnerships in American state-building. By looking at alternative enforcement mechanisms, this thesis adds to theories of state-building and private power. The American experience helps us conceive a more nuanced perspective on state formation that recognizes the state’s varying tools rather than focusing solely on the development of formal organizational capacity. The questions driving this thesis are: How can public-private partnerships expand state capacity? Are there systematic differences in the outcomes and purposes of partnerships based on the branch of government – whether legislative, presidential, bureaucratic, or judicial – that mediates the partnership? My case studies examine the use of partnerships in the early state’s interactions with American Indian tribes. The cases put these general questions into more focus by examining if these partnerships expanded state capacity to dictate the terms of engagement and the content of racial orders. When these partnerships expand capacity, I explore the ways in which this state goal is accomplished. However, I remain acutely aware of the potential for partnerships to both fail to build capacity or become merely means to service a private interest.

La Pennsylvanie est un État complexe dans sa géographie économique, urbaine et raciale et, partant, dans les comportements électoraux de ses citoyens. Cette thèse examine la manière dont le Tea Party s’y est organisé et les modes de mobilisation qu’il a adoptés. Fort d’une tradition conservatrice souvent sous-estimée, l'État de William Penn constitue un bon observatoire pour étudier l'évolution et les mutations du mouvement conservateur et de son bras armé électoral, le Parti républicain. L’observation de terrain démontre que le Tea Party ne peut pas être appréhendé indépendamment d’une large galaxie de groupes nationaux et locaux, de think tanks, de médias avec lesquels il entretient des relations souvent conflictuelles.La thèse met en lumière la mutation d’un mouvement social médiatisé en une mobilisation politique dont les efforts se concentrent à l’échelle fédérée et locale. Rétifs à toute institutionnalisation, les groupes locaux voudraient restituer aux citoyens des processus de décision que l’appareil républicain aurait confisqués à son profit. Stratégie d’entrisme, pressions sur les élus, travail idéologique d’organisations de terrain, action concertée au Congrès ont fait glisser le centre de gravité du GOP vers un conservatisme pour lequel la capacité à nouer des compromis pour gouverner est disqualifiée. En dépit d’une force militante en recul, la nébuleuse Tea Party soumet idéologiquement le mouvement conservateur et le Parti républicain à de fortes pressions qui ne sont pas étrangères à la confusion qui caractérise la situation politique actuelle du pays. / Pennsylvania is a complex state in its economic, urban, and racial geographies, accordingly complex is the electoral behavior of its citizens. This thesis examines the ways in which Tea Party groups in Pennsylvania mobilized and organized. The often overlooked conservative tradition of William Penn’s state makes it an excellent case study to examine the evolution and mutations of the conservative movement and of its electoral arm, the Republican party. The fieldwork conducted in this thesis shows that the Tea Party cannot be understood without taking into account a great number of national and local groups, think tanks, and media personalities with whom it often has chaotic relationships.This work focuses on the evolution of a visible social movement into a political mobilization that targets the state and local levels. Local Tea Party groups, who are opposed to any form of institutionalization, fight to snatch power from the hands of the GOP establishment to give it back to the voters. Gradual infiltration of the Republican party, constant pressure on elected officials, ideological work conducted by advocacy organizations, and concerted action in Congress have driven the GOP towards a brand of conservatism that rejects any idea of compromise in governing. Despite a drop in the number of activists, the Tea Party movement has subjected the conservative movement and the Republican party to heavy ideological pressure, which partly explains the current confusion in the country’s political landscape.