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

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Sentimental democracy : the evolution of America's romantic self-image / Andrew Burstein.

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Status	Format	Access	Call number	Item location
Status Request for on-site use Request scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	FormatText	AccessUse in library	Call numberE163 .B88 1999	Item locationOff-site

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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.

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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.

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