The Intellectual Construction Of America

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The Intellectual Construction of America

Author : Jack P. Greene
Publisher : Univ of North Carolina Press
Page : 228 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2000-11-09
Category : History
ISBN : 9780807861776

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The Intellectual Construction of America by Jack P. Greene Pdf

Jack Greene explores the changing definitions of America from the time of Europe's first contact with the New World through the establishment of the American republic. Challenging historians who have argued that colonial American societies differed little from those of early modern Europe, he shows that virtually all contemporary observers emphasized the distinctiveness of the new worlds being created in America. Rarely considering the high costs paid by Amerindians and Africans in the construction of those worlds, they cited the British North American colonies as evidence that America was for free people a place of exceptional opportunities for individual betterment and was therefore fundamentally different from the Old World. Greene suggests that this concept of American societies as exceptional was a central component in their emerging identity. The success of the American Revolution helped subordinate Americans' long-standing sense of cultural inferiority to a more positive sense of collective self that sharpened and intensified the concept of American exceptionalism.

American Exceptionalism

Author : Volker Depkat
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2021-11-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9781538101193

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American Exceptionalism by Volker Depkat Pdf

The idea that America is exceptional, whether because of its founding creed, natural abundance, or Protestant origins, has been the subject of fierce debate going back to the founding. Rather than argue for one side or the other, Volker Depkat explores the diverse ways in which Americans have described their country as exceptional. Describing how narratives of exceptionalism have never been a purely American affair, Depkat shows how, for example, European, African, and Asian immigrants projected their own dreams and nightmares onto the American screen, contributing to the intellectual construction of America. In fact, the different groups living in America have described American exceptionalism in such differing terms that there hardly ever was a shared understanding as to what these exceptional experiences were and how to interpret them. What has unified the disparate exceptionalist narratives, Depkat explains, is their insistence on America's universalist and future-oriented way of life. In engaging and lucid prose, Depkat offers general readers and students of American history an invaluable lens through which they can evaluate for themselves the merits of the many ways in which Americans have understood their country as exceptional.

American Exceptionalism Vol 1

Author : Timothy Roberts
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 364 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2017-07-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9781351576901

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American Exceptionalism Vol 1 by Timothy Roberts Pdf

American exceptionalism ? the idea that America is fundamentally distinct from other nations ? is a philosophy that has dominated economics, politics, religion and culture for two centuries. This collection of primary source material seeks to understand how this belief began, how it developed and why it remains popular.

American Green

Author : Stephen A. Germic
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 159 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2001-05-25
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780739151983

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American Green by Stephen A. Germic Pdf

In this work of interdisciplinary scholarship, Stephen A. Germic reveals how America's first parks, both urban and 'wilderness,' were created and organized to mitigate the most threatening social and economic crises in the nineteenth century outside of the Civil War. Germic analyzes the intentionally disguised relationship between the constructed 'nature' of Central Park, Yosemite, and Yellowstone and the expanding but crisis-prone capitalist state. American Green demonstrates how the fundamental function of these parks was economic and political—in the service of maintaining a consensus regarding national identity. The organization and control of 'natural' space, Germic argues, is inseparable from its function as a capitalist instrument. This instrumentalism served not only to define, constitute, and segregate social groups, but also to promote racial and ethnic identifications above those based on class interest. Providing a fresh insight into United States labor, cultural and environmental history, this book is an important contribution to our understanding of American parks and the complex meaning of American public space.

Made in America

Author : Claude S. Fischer
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 528 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2010-05-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0226251454

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Made in America by Claude S. Fischer Pdf

Our nation began with the simple phrase, “We the People.” But who were and are “We”? Who were we in 1776, in 1865, or 1968, and is there any continuity in character between the we of those years and the nearly 300 million people living in the radically different America of today? With Made in America, Claude S. Fischer draws on decades of historical, psychological, and social research to answer that question by tracking the evolution of American character and culture over three centuries. He explodes myths—such as that contemporary Americans are more mobile and less religious than their ancestors, or that they are more focused on money and consumption—and reveals instead how greater security and wealth have only reinforced the independence, egalitarianism, and commitment to community that characterized our people from the earliest years. Skillfully drawing on personal stories of representative Americans, Fischer shows that affluence and social progress have allowed more people to participate fully in cultural and political life, thus broadening the category of “American” —yet at the same time what it means to be an American has retained surprising continuity with much earlier notions of American character. Firmly in the vein of such classics as The Lonely Crowd and Habits of the Heart—yet challenging many of their conclusions—Made in America takes readers beyond the simplicity of headlines and the actions of elites to show us the lives, aspirations, and emotions of ordinary Americans, from the settling of the colonies to the settling of the suburbs.

A History of American Literature

Author : Richard Gray
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 933 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2011-09-23
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781444345681

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A History of American Literature by Richard Gray Pdf

Updated throughout and with much new material, A History of American Literature, Second Edition, is the most up-to-date and comprehensive survey available of the myriad forms of American Literature from pre-Columbian times to the present. The most comprehensive and up-to-date history of American literature available today Covers fiction, poetry, drama, and non-fiction, as well as other forms of literature including folktale, spirituals, the detective story, the thriller, and science fiction Explores the plural character of American literature, including the contributions made by African American, Native American, Hispanic and Asian American writers Considers how our understanding of American literature has changed over the past?thirty years Situates American literature in the contexts of American history, politics and society Offers an invaluable introduction to American literature for students at all levels, academic and general readers

Imagined Histories

Author : Anthony Molho,Gordon S. Wood
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 501 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2018-06-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9780691187341

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Imagined Histories by Anthony Molho,Gordon S. Wood Pdf

This collection of essays by twenty-one distinguished American historians reflects on a peculiarly American way of imagining the past. At a time when history-writing has changed dramatically, the authors discuss the birth and evolution of historiography in this country, from its origins in the late nineteenth century through its present, more cosmopolitan character. In the book's first part, concerning recent historiography, are chapters on exceptionalism, gender, economic history, social theory, race, and immigration and multiculturalism. Authors are Daniel Rodgers, Linda Kerber, Naomi Lamoreaux, Dorothy Ross, Thomas Holt, and Philip Gleason. The three American centuries are discussed in the second part, with chapters by Gordon Wood, George Fredrickson, and James Patterson. The third part is a chronological survey of non-American histories, including that of Western civilization, ancient history, the middle ages, early modern and modern Europe, Russia, and Asia. Contributors are Eugen Weber, Richard Saller, Gabrielle Spiegel, Anthony Molho, Philip Benedict, Richard Kagan, Keith Baker, Joseph Zizak, Volker Berghahn, Charles Maier, Martin Malia, and Carol Gluck. Together, these scholars reveal the unique perspective American historians have brought to the past of their own nation as well as that of the world. Formerly writing from a conviction that America had a singular destiny, American historians have gradually come to share viewpoints of historians in other countries about which they write. The result is the virtual disappearance of what was a distinctive American voice. That voice is the subject of this book.

The American Studies Anthology

Author : Richard P. Horwitz
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 420 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : History
ISBN : 0842028293

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The American Studies Anthology by Richard P. Horwitz Pdf

A rich and rewarding subject of popular imagination, the United States is compellingly portrayed in this first anthology designed specifically for American studies courses. Offering an indispensable introduction to the long and varied history of generalizing about America, leading scholar Richard Horwitz has compiled the definitive anthology for American studies and American culture courses. Brimming with imaginative selections, the reader contains essays, plays, songs, comedy, legal documents, speeches, and poems by a rich array of authors-both domestic and international-whose writings echo recurring American themes. Collectively, the anthology identifies the ways in which scholars and popularizers have attempted to characterize America. Horwitz's insightful introduction summarizes key themes in the study of American culture as he traces the history of the field as well as current controversies. He avoids heavy jargon yet presents a nuanced view of the foundational works in American studies. Preceding the readings with concise, informative introductions, Horwitz seamlessly guides the reader through this distinctive collection.

Thomas Jefferson and American Nationhood

Author : Brian Steele
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2012-07-30
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781107020702

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Thomas Jefferson and American Nationhood by Brian Steele Pdf

This book identifies Jefferson as an American nationalist and describes his assessment of American character and democratic promise.

American Exceptionalism?

Author : Rick Halpern,Jonathan Morris
Publisher : Springer
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 1997-08-12
Category : History
ISBN : 9781349255849

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American Exceptionalism? by Rick Halpern,Jonathan Morris Pdf

The idea that American historical development is different from that of other nations is an old one, yet it shows no sign of losing its emotive power. 'Exceptionalism' continues to excite, beguile, and frustrate students of the American past. The essays in this volume explore the ways in which the process of class formation in the United States can be said to be distinctive. Focusing upon the impact of liberal political thought, race and immigration, and the role of the war-time state, they challenge particularist and nation-centred modes of explanation. Comparing American historical development with Italian, South African, and Australian examples, the essays reinvigorate a tired debate.

Europe and the World, 1650-1830

Author : Professor Jeremy Black,Jeremy Black
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 212 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2013-10-08
Category : History
ISBN : 9781136407727

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Europe and the World, 1650-1830 by Professor Jeremy Black,Jeremy Black Pdf

Europe and the World, 1650-1830 is an important thematic study of the first age of globalisation. It surveys the interaction of Europe, Europe's growing colonies and other major global powers, such as the Ottoman Empire, China, India and Japan. Focusing on Europe's impact on the world, Jeremy Black analyses European attitudes, exploration, trade and acquisition of knowledge.

Jefferson's Empire

Author : Peter S. Onuf
Publisher : University of Virginia Press
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0813922046

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Jefferson's Empire by Peter S. Onuf Pdf

Thomas Jefferson believed that the American revolution was atransformative moment in the history of political civilization. He hoped that hisown efforts as a founding statesman and theorist would help construct a progressiveand enlightened order for the new American nation that would be a model andinspiration for the world. Peter S. Onuf's new book traces Jefferson's vision of theAmerican future to its roots in his idealized notions of nationhood and empire.Onuf's unsettling recognition that Jefferson's famed egalitarianism was elaboratedin an imperial context yields strikingly original interpretations of our nationalidentity and our ideas of race, of westward expansion and the Civil War, and ofAmerican global dominance in the twentiethcentury. Jefferson's vision of an American "empirefor liberty" was modeled on a British prototype. But as a consensual union ofself-governing republics without a metropolis, Jefferson's American empire would befree of exploitation by a corrupt imperial ruling class. It would avoid the cycle ofwar and destruction that had characterized the European balance ofpower. The Civil War cast in high relief thetragic limitations of Jefferson's political vision. After the Union victory, as thereconstructed nation-state developed into a world power, dreams of the United Statesas an ever-expanding empire of peacefully coexisting states quickly faded frommemory. Yet even as the antebellum federal union disintegrated, a Jeffersoniannationalism, proudly conscious of America's historic revolution against imperialdomination, grew up in its place. In Onuf's view, Jefferson's quest to define a new American identity also shaped his ambivalentconceptions of slavery and Native American rights. His revolutionary fervor led himto see Indians as "merciless savages" who ravaged the frontiers at the Britishking's direction, but when those frontiers were pacified, a more benevolentJefferson encouraged these same Indians to embrace republican values. AfricanAmerican slaves, by contrast, constituted an unassimilable captive nation, unjustlywrenched from its African homeland. His great panacea: colonization. Jefferson's ideas about race revealthe limitations of his conception of American nationhood. Yet, as Onuf strikinglydocuments, Jefferson's vision of a republican empire--a regime of peace, prosperity, and union without coercion--continues to define and expand the boundaries ofAmerican national identity.

A World of Disorderly Notions

Author : Aaron R. Hanlon
Publisher : University of Virginia Press
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2019-05-30
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780813942179

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A World of Disorderly Notions by Aaron R. Hanlon Pdf

From Jonathan Swift to Washington Irving, those looking to propose and justify exceptions to social and political norms turned to Cervantes’s notoriously mad comic hero as a model. A World of Disorderly Notions examines the literary and political effects of Don Quixote, arguing that what makes this iconic character so influential across oceans and cultures is not his madness but his logic. Aaron Hanlon contends that the logic of quixotism is in fact exceptionalism—the strategy of rendering oneself an exception to everyone else’s rules. As British and American societies of the Enlightenment developed the need to question the acceptance of various forms of imperialism and social contract theory—and to explain both the virtues and limitations of revolutions past and ongoing—it was Quixote’s exceptionalism, not his madness, that captured the imaginations of so many writers and statesmen. As a consequence, the eighteenth century witnessed an explosion of imitations of Quixote in fiction and polemical writing, by writers such as Jonathan Swift, Charlotte Lennox, Henry Fielding, and Washington Irving, among others. Combining literary history and political theory, Hanlon clarifies an ongoing and immediately relevant history of exceptionalism, of how states from Golden Age Spain to imperial Britain to the formative United States rendered themselves exceptions so they could act with impunity. In so doing, he tells the story of how Quixote became exceptional.

Landscape and Identity in North America's Southern Colonies from 1660 to 1745

Author : Dr Catherine Armstrong
Publisher : Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Page : 330 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2013-05-28
Category : History
ISBN : 9781409465065

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Landscape and Identity in North America's Southern Colonies from 1660 to 1745 by Dr Catherine Armstrong Pdf

Through an analysis of textual representations of the American landscape, this book looks at how North America appeared in books printed on both sides of the Atlantic between the years 1660 and 1745. A variety of literary genres are examined to discover how authors described the landscape, climate, flora and fauna of America, particularly of the new southern colonies of Carolina and Georgia. Chapters are arranged thematically, each exploring how the relationship between English and American print changed over the 85 years under consideration. Beginning in 1660 with the impact of the Restoration on the colonial relationship, the book moves on to show how the expansion of British settlement in this period coincided with a dramatic increase in the production and consumption of the printed word and the further development of religious and scientific explanations of landscape change and climactic events. This in turn led to multiple interpretations of the American landscape dependent on factors such as whether the writer had actually visited America or not, differing purposes for writing, growing imperial considerations, and conflict with the French, Spanish and Natives. The book concludes by bringing together the three key themes: how representations of landscape varied depending on the genre of literature in which they appeared; that an author's perceived self-definition (as English resident, American visitor or American resident) determined his understanding of the American landscape; and finally that the development of a unique American identity by the mid-eighteenth century can be seen by the way American residents define the landscape and their relationship to it.

America’s Dream Palace

Author : Osamah F. Khalil
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 380 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2016-10-17
Category : History
ISBN : 9780674974203

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America’s Dream Palace by Osamah F. Khalil Pdf

As the postwar U.S. national security establishment required Middle Eastern expertise, it cultivated a beneficial relationship with universities. But by the time the Bush administration declared its Global War on Terror, Osamah Khalil shows, think tank agendas aligned with neoconservative goals were the drivers of America’s foreign policy.