The Rediscovery of America: Transatlantic Crosscurrents in an Age of Revolution

by Stuart Andrews

Overview

The Rediscovery of America features some twenty representatives of England, France and America, whose careers in some sense straddled the Atlantic in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. While not establishing causal links between the American and French Revolutions, the collective weight of these individual responses to the new America supports the idea of an 'Atlantic Revolution'. This study of the writings and transatlantic experiences of the revolutionary generation shows the power of American images in shaping political rhetoric, if not political reality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349269365
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	01/01/1998
Edition description:	1st ed. 1998
Pages:	257
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

STUART ANDREWS was a scholar of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in the 1950s, after national service in the Parachute Brigade. He is author of three other books on the eighteenth century, and of numerous articles and reviews. Besides teaching his career has included such part-time roles as librarian, editor of a professional journal, school inspector and freelance lecturer. He has also been Headmaster of Norwich School and Clifton College.

Table of Contents

Preface Acknowledgements PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Discovery and Re-discovery: Planters, Puritans and Philosophes PART TWO: FOUNDING FATHERS IN AMERICA Porcelain and Revolutionary Principles: Franklin and the French American Encyclop ste : Jefferson at Home and Abroad Reluctant Philosophe : John Adams and Republican Government PART THREE: TRANS-ATLANTIC CITIZENS Bridging the Atlantic: Paine's Three Revolutions Burke's Grasshoppers: Dr Price as 'Apostle of Liberty' Flammable Gas: Priestley as Propagandist Land-agent of Liberty: South Carolina's Thomas Cooper PART FOUR: FRENCHMEN IN AMERICA Slaves, Quakers and 'Free Americans': Brissot's America and the French Revolution Hero of Two Worlds: La Fayette, Freemasons and Liberty Allies in Arms: S r, Lauzun and Chastellux PART FIVE: IMAGES AND VISIONS Arm-chair Philosophy: Raynal's Best-seller The American Farmer: Hector St John Cr coeur Women and Emigrants: Mary Wollstonecraft and Gilbert Imlay Poets' Utopia: Coleridge, Southey and the Susquehanna North American Naturalists: Bartram and Audubon Notes Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

Presents a series of case studies on 20 Americans, Frenchmen, and Englishmen who were both impacted by the American revolutionary culture of the late 18th century and were in some way transatlantic in their careers. While not arguing for causal connections between the American Revolution and European political events, the author attempts to demonstrate, in his discussions of figures such as Franklin, Lafayette, Paine, Burke, Mary Wollstonecraft, and James Audubon, how American culture both affected and was affected by European arts, propaganda, and culture. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

“Stuart Andrews writes well, can tell an engaging story, and tells many here. His vivid style brings to life an important slice of elite transatlantic culture in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.” —American Historical Review

“Stuart Andrews' Rediscovery of America helps readers discover something of revolutionary American for themselves. . .at once convincing and entertaining.” —American Studies Journal

From the Publisher