This violent empire : the birth of an American national identity / Carroll Smith-Rosenberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll, author.

Contributor:

Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture.

Series:

Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

National characteristics, American--History--18th century.

National characteristics, American.

Men, White--United States--Attitudes--History--18th century.

Men, White.

Difference (Psychology)--Political aspects--United States--History--18th century.

Difference (Psychology).

Political culture--United States--History--18th century.

Political culture.

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

Violence.

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

Racism.

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

Paranoia.

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

Sexism.

Marginality, Social--United States--History--18th century.

Marginality, Social.

United States--Civilization--1783-1865.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (509 p.)

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill, [North Carolina] : Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, by the University of North Carolina Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This study traces the origins of American violence, racism, and paranoia to the founding moments of the new nation and the initial instability of Americans' national sense of self. It explores how the founding generation, lacking a common history, governmental infrastructures, and shared culture, solidified their national sense of self by imagining a series of 'others' (African Americans, Native Americans, women, the propertyless) whose differences from European American male founders overshadowed the differences that divided those founders.

Contents:

Introduction: "What, then, is the American, this new man?"

Section 1. The new American-as-republican citizen

Prologue 1: The drums of war/the thrust of empire

Fusions and confusions

Rebellious dandies and political fictions

American Minervas

Section 2. Dangerous doubles

Prologue 2: Masculinity and masquerade

Seeing red

Subject female : authorizing an American identity

Section 3. The new American-as-bourgeois gentleman

Prologue 3: The ball

Choreographing class/performing gentility

Polished gentlemen, troublesome women, and dancing slaves

Black gothic.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

979-88-908851-7-3

979-88-908851-8-0

0-8078-9591-1

1-4696-0039-0

OCLC:

861793465