Research Catalog

Sentimental democracy : the evolution of America's romantic self-image

Title: Sentimental democracy : the evolution of America's romantic self-image / Andrew Burstein.
Author: Burstein, Andrew.
Publication: New York : Hill and Wang, 1999.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	E163 .B88 1999	Off-site

Details

Description

xxi, 406 pages; 24 cm

Summary

For more than two centuries, Americans have used words of sentiment and sympathy, passion and power to explain their country's unique democratic mission. Here Andrew Burstein examines the emotional dynamic and the metaphorically rich language which Americans developed to express their guiding principle: that the New World would improve upon the Old. "Feeling," he argues, was a political and cultural phenomenon, and in the impassioned rhetoric of "feeling" we can locate the sources of American patriotism. Using newspapers and magazines, private letters and public speeches, diaries and books, Burstein shows how the eighteenth-century "culture of sensibility" encouraged early Americans to make a heartfelt commitment to the Enlightenment's optimism about a global society; it would succeed, they believed, as much by sublime feeling as by intellectual achievement and political liberty. "Sentimental Democracy" gives us a lively dual portrait of the American psyche and the American dream -- telling us as much about ourselves as about our morally passionate ancestors. -- From publisher's description.

Subject

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. [389]-397) and index.

Contents

1. Sentiment and Sympathy: Beginnings -- 2. Schemes of Future Happiness: 1750-64 -- 3. A People of Enthusiasm and Self-Control: 1765-75 -- 4. The American Dream: 1776 -- 5. Actuated by a Vigilant and Manly Spirit: 1777-88 -- 6. Tormented by Phantoms: 1789-1800 -- 7. Something New Under the Sun: 1801-15 -- 8. With Pinions High Pointed: 1816-28 -- 9. Sentiment and Sympathy: Transitions -- 10. Legacies of National Character.

ISBN

0809085356
9780809085354
9780809085361
0809085364

LCCN

98052046

OCLC

ocm40444492
40444492
SCSB-736585

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library