Benjamin Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, and the representation of American culture edited by Barbara B. Oberg, Harry S. Stout

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Oberg, Barbara.

Stout, Harry S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American prose literature--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775--History and criticism.

American prose literature.

American prose literature--1783-1850--History and criticism.

Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790--Criticism and interpretation.

Franklin, Benjamin.

Edwards, Jonathan, 1703-1758--Criticism and interpretation.

Edwards, Jonathan.

Language and culture--United States--History--18th century.

Language and culture.

National characteristics, American, in literature.

United States--Intellectual life--18th century.

United States.

Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790.

Edwards, Jonathan, 1703-1758.

Local Subjects:

Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790.

Edwards, Jonathan, 1703-1758.

Physical Description:

viii, 230 p. ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 1993.

Summary:

No colonial figures so completely anticipated the shape of American culture - at once material and spiritual, piously secular and pragmatically sacred - as did Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin. Commonly labeled "Puritan" and "Yankee" respectively, Edwards and Franklin evoke seemingly opposite ideals. Puritan values, embraced by Edwards and sustained in American "evangelicalism," focus on God, communal faith, and self-denial. Yankee attributes, espoused by Franklin and sustained in American liberal republicanism, coalesce around the trinity of hard work, independent virtue, and utilitarian self-happiness. For two and a half centuries these alternative emphases and orientations have coexisted in uneasy tension both individually and in American society at large. In contrast to traditional comparative studies, which portray Edwards and Franklin as mutually exclusive ideal types, this interdisciplinary collection of essays allows polemical contrasts to disappear and Edwards and Franklin emerge as contrapuntal themes in a larger unity. From these essays, written by distinguished historians and literary critics such as Ruth Bloch, Edwin S. Gaustad, Daniel Walker Howe, J. A. Leo Lemay, and David Levin, emerges a portrait of two men who shared a common concern with mind, character, and virtue that shaped a legacy that would define much of American character for generations to come.

Contents:

Introduction / Barbara B. Oberg, Harry S. Stout

Mind

Religious Affections and Religious Affectations: Antinomianism and Hypocrisy in the Writings of Edwards and Franklin / William Breitenbach

Enlightenment and Awakening in Edwards and Franklin / A. Owen Aldridge

The Nature of True

and Useful

Virtue: From Edwards to Franklin / Edwin S. Gaustad

"A Wall Between Them Up to Heaven": Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin / Elizabeth E. Dunn

Franklin, Edwards, and the Problem of Human Nature / Daniel Walker Howe

Culture

The Two Cultures in Eighteenth-Century America / Bruce Kuklick

The Laughter of One: Sweetness and Light in Franklin and Edwards / Leonard I. Sweet

Women, Love, and Virtue in the Thought of Edwards and Franklin / Ruth H. Bloch

The Selling of the Self: From Franklin to Barnum / Michael Zuckerman

Language

Reason, Rhythm, and Style / David Levin

Rhetorical Strategies in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and Narrative of the Late Massacres in Lancaster County / J. A. Leo Lemay

Humanizing the Monster: Integral Self Versus Bodied Soul in the Personal Writings of Franklin and Edwards / R. C. De Prospo.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

019507775X (acid-free paper)

9780195077759 (acid-free paper)

OCLC:

26721665