Director of the Program in Early American Economy and Society
jcroney@librarycompany.org

Jessica Choppin Roney received her BA from Swarthmore College, her MA from the College of William and Mary, and her PhD from Johns Hopkins University.  In addition to serving as Director of the Program in Early American Economy and Society, she is Associate Professor of History at Temple University.  A former Library Company and PEAES fellow, she conducted much of the research for her first book, Governed by a Spirit of Opposition: The Origins of American Political Practice in Colonial Philadelphia, (Johns Hopkins Press, 2014), at the Library Company.  The book is an exploration of the evolution of voluntary associations and civic governance in colonial Philadelphia.  The founding of the Library Company in 1731 is a central focus of the book.  She is currently at work on A Revolution Out of Bounds, 1763-1815 which focuses on how western settlement shaped the political settlement of the American Revolution.  Her most recent article relates to this project: “‘An Expansion of the Same Society’: Republican Government and Empire in the Early Republic,” Journal of American History, June 2024.