Research Catalog

The intellectual construction of America : exceptionalism and identity from 1492 to 1800

Title
The intellectual construction of America : exceptionalism and identity from 1492 to 1800 / Jack P. Greene.
Author
Greene, Jack P.
Publication
Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, ©1993.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library IF 93-11323Schwarzman Building - Milstein Division Room 121

Details

Description
216 pages : illustrations; 25 cm
Summary
"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."--
Alternative Title
Exceptionalism and identity from 1492 to 1800
Subjects
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
Expectations : the European fabrication of America in the sixteenth century -- Encounters : projection and design in the construction of English America, 1580-1690 -- Experiences : the behavioral articulation of British America, 1690-1760 -- Evaluations : the conceptual identification of British America, 1715-1775 -- Examinations : the European response to the American Revolution, 1776-1800 -- Explanations : revolution and redefinition, 1774-1800.
Call Number
IF 93-11323
ISBN
  • 0807820970
  • 9780807820971
  • 0807846317
  • 9780807846315
LCCN
92046707
OCLC
27264685
Author
Greene, Jack P.
Title
The intellectual construction of America : exceptionalism and identity from 1492 to 1800 / Jack P. Greene.
Imprint
Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, ©1993.
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Connect to:
Table of contents
Chronological Term
To 1865
Indexed Term
National characteristics, American
United States Civilization To 1783
Other Form:
Online version: Greene, Jack P. Intellectual construction of America. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, ©1993 (OCoLC)756443141
Research Call Number
IF 93-11323
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