Profile
Back to DirectoryJamie Gianoutsos, Ph.D., is interested in the intersection of republican thought, gender, and culture in the Anglo-republican tradition, which shaped 17th century England and our US founding. She is author of The Rule of Manhood: Tyranny, Gender, and Classical Republicanism in England, 1603-1660 (Cambridge University Press). Dr. Gianoutsos joined the Mount's history department in Spring 2013, offering courses in the Western Civilization sequence of core curriculum and electives including Tudor and Stuart Britain, The French Revolution, The Public Sphere in Early Modern England, Historical Methods, The Politics of Gender in Early Modern Europe, and Senior Seminar. Gianoutsos also serves as the Director of the Office of Competitive Fellowships at Mount St. Mary's University.
Early Modern Europe, especially Britain; Intellectual and Gender History; Renaissance Literature; Medieval History and Literature; Great Books: Classical to Contemporary
The Rule of Manhood: Tyranny, Gender, and Classical Republicanism in England, 1603-1660. Studies in Early Modern British History Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
Through stories of lustful and incestuous rulers, of republican revolution and of unnatural crimes against family, seventeenth-century Englishmen imagined the problem of political tyranny through the prism of classical history. This fueled debates over the practices of their own kings, the necessity of revolution, and the character of English republican thought. The Rule of Manhood explores the dynamic and complex languages of tyranny and masculinity that arose through these classical stories and their imaginative appropriation. Discerning the neglected connection between concepts of power and masculinity in early Stuart England, the book shows both how stories of ancient tyranny were deployed in the dialogue around monarchy and rule between 1603 and 1660 and the extent to which these shaped English classical republican thought. Drawing on extensive research in contemporary printed texts, The Rule of Manhood weaves together the histories of politics and manhood to make a bold claim: that the fundamental purpose of English republicanism was not liberty or virtue, but the realization of manhood for its citizens.
The “Propagation of Liberty”: Marchamont Nedham and the Classical Republican Tradition.
This monograph explores the thought and legacy of republican theorist and pioneering journalist Marchamont Nedham. It considers three principles from Nedham’s writings which have been fundamental to the Anglo-republican tradition and our democracy: first, the early practice of the free press, and the ways that protections for the liberty of expression developed alongside early arguments for the liberty of conscience and religious toleration in a country that historically persecuted political and religious dissenters; second, the idea of “republican bodies” – how early republican writers such as Nedham theorized the expansion and limits of republican citizenship through the alleged attributes of physical bodies, including gender, racial characteristics, and the “natural” propensity for virtue; third, the republican idea of the “propagation of liberty,” which shaped colonial practices, the development of particular liberties in British colonies, and also early racial thought. The final chapter of this project considers the influence of these three historic principles – the freedom of the press, republican bodies, and the propagation of liberty – on the American founding, and especially the writings of John Adams, who wrote a very lengthy commentary on Nedham’s Excellencie, weighing which form of popular representation would best protect the liberty of citizens.
See Gianoutsos's work as Director of the Office of Competitive Fellowships.