The nation's nature : how continental presumptions gave rise to the United States of America / James D. Drake.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Drake, James David, 1968-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nationalism.

History.

Geographical perception.

United States--Historical geography.

United States.

Historical geography.

Geographical perception--United States--History--18th century.

United States--History--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.

Nationalism--United States--History--18th century.

United States--Territorial expansion.

Territorial expansion.

United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783--Causes.

Physical Description:

xii, 402 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, [2011]

Summary:

In one of Common Sense 's most ringing phrases, Thomas Paine declared it "absurd" for "a continent to be perpetually governed by an island." Such powerful words, coupled with powerful ideas, helped spur the United States to independence. In The Nation's Nature, James D. Drake examines how a relatively small number of inhabitants of the Americas, huddled along North America's east coast, came to mentally appropriate the entire continent and to think of their nation as America. Drake demonstrates how British North American colonists' participation in scientific debates and imperial contests shaped their notions of global geography. These ideas, in turn, solidified American nationalism, spurred a revolution, and shaped the ratification of the Constitution. Winner of the Walker Cowen Memorial Prize for an outstanding work of scholarship in eighteenth-century studies

Contents:

Introduction : the historical role of an imagined place

Scientific trends, continental conceptions, revolutionary implications

The geopolitical continent, 1713-1763

Continental crisis, 1763-1774

Nationalism's nature : Congress's continental aspect

Nationalism's nurture : war, peace, and the continental character of the United States, 1775-1783

Ordering lands and peoples : scientific and imperial contexts of the late eighteenth century

Seizing nature's advantages : the Constitution and the continent, 1783-1789

Epilogue : the continent from on high.

Notes:

"Winner of the Walker Cowen Memorial Prize for an outstanding work of scholarship in eighteenth-century studies ."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780813931227

0813931223

9780813931395

0813931398

OCLC:

694283187