A302, Revolutionary America

Tuesday

Jedidah Morse, American Geography (1789):  Morse felt it imperative to rid the nascent United States of British empirical knowledge and British cultural influence.  He argued that British empirical knowledge was inaccurate, at least with respect to American geography.  In other words, he sought to create the “United States.”  And he also sought to create “Americans” via correct empirical knowledge, without the kind of British cultural influence which he deemed to be contrary to the new thrust of American culture.  Morse was assiduous in the 1780s in collecting geographical information about the United States from other American intellectuals throughout the new nation.  He still plagiarized from British geography books, however, and he associated his home region New England with the essence of American culture.  In other words, Morse had a difficult time creating something uniquely and genuinely “American.”

Amelia Simmons did not write an elaborate explanation of her ideological aim as did Jedidiah Morse, but her book was nevertheless also presented as intentionally distinctively “American.”&bnsp; This kind of production of American culture captured the imagination and energy of a variety of American culture producers in the initial decades of the United States as a new nation, and it captivated enough Americans eager to participate in the creation of American culture.  One way was to buy new American books; another way was to prepare “American” meals.

Alexander Jackson Davis is an example of how this cultural project continued for decades into the 19th century, affecting many aspects of everyday American life, such as foodways and family homes.  Ideally, what would an “American” home look like?  What would make it “American” in its appearance and functionality, and what would enable it to contribute to the creation of American culture?  This was a conscious ideological project meant to become an intrinsic part of everyday American life — simply there, everywhere, in every home, in every meal.

Thursday

British and European intellectuals for decades mocked what they deemed to be the crudeness of American material life, as well as the crudeness of American cultural life.  “Who reads an American book?” was the notorious 1820 insult directed at American authors.  Thomas Cole was one of the first American artists with the talent and ambition to produce and proclaim an “American” culture.  Indeed, his very iconography was meant to bypass any British influence in favor of other claims to aesthetic credibility.  Cole used his art to celebrate “American” life — and, as in The Course of Empire series, to question American self-belief.  What was “America”?  What would it become?