Myths and the American Nation: Jefferson’s Declaration and the development of American nationalism

• Authors: Smith Brian G.
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The USA as a multinational country of immigrants is nevertheless a fertile ground for competing nationalist ideologies and the consequently competing myth-building that surrounds the construction of national identity. The myth of the 1776 Declaration of Independence as an important founding document for domestic politics in the United States continues to spread through popular culture and academic textbooks. The claim of the Jefferson’s Declaration as an aspirational founding document helped establish a myth supporting creedal nationalism, but obscures the arc of the ideological debate over national identity.

Keywords

EN

American nationalism; myth; Thomas Jefferson; Declaration of Independence,; creedal nationalism

• Publisher: Oficyna Wydawnicza Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego
• Journal: Przegląd Narodowościowy – Review of Nationalities
• Year: 2018
• Volume: 8
• Pages: 7-20

Dates

published

2018

Contributors

author

Smith Brian G.

• Georgia Southwestern State University, Americus, United States of America

References

• 106th Congress, 2nd Session, The Declaration of Independence was the promise; the Constitution was the fulfillment, House Document 2000, www.gpo.gov [access on: 13.10.2017].
• Amar A.R., Kmiec D.W., Perspectives on the Constitution: Understanding Our Constitution, National Constitution Center, https://constitutioncenter.org/learn/educational-resources/historical-documents/perspectives-on-the-constitution-understanding-our-constitution [access on: 13.10.2017].
• Ammerman D., In the Common Cause: American Response to the Coercive Acts of 1774, New York 1975.
• Anderson B., Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London 1998.
• Bonikowski B., DiMaggio P., Varieties of American Popular Nationalism, “American Sociological Review” 2016, No. 81(5), pp. 949-80.
• Bradford W., Of Plymouth Plantation, [in:] The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Beginnings to 1820, 9th ed., New York 2017.
• Brubaker R., Myths and Misconceptions in the Study of Nationalism, [in:] The State of the Nation: Ernest Gellner and the Theory of Nationalism, edit. John Hall, Cambridge 1998.
• Brubaker R., The Manichean Myth: Rethinking the Distinction Between Civic and Ethnic Nationalism, [in:] Nation and National Identity: the European Experience in Perspective, edit. H. Kriesi et.al, Zurich 1999.
• Brubaker R., Loveman M., Stamatov P., Ethnicity as Cognition, “Theory and Society” 2004, No. 33(1), pp. 31-64.
• De Crevecoeur J.H.S.J., Letters from an American Farmer, [in:] The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Beginnings to 1820, 9th ed., New York 2017.
• Declaration of Independence, “The Virginia Chronicle” March 18, 1817, https://virginiachronicle.com/cgi-bin/virginia?a=d&d=GL18170318.2.8 [access on: 25.03.2017].
• Farber D., Sherry S., A History of the American Constitution, Saint Paul 1990.
• Grimke A., Appeal to the Christian Women of the South, [in:] The Norton anthology of American Literature: 1820-1865, 9th ed., New York 2017.
• Hroch M., Real and Constructed: the Nature of the Nation, [in:] The State of the Nation: Ernest Gellner and the Theory of Nationalism, edit. J. Hall, Cambridge 1998.
• Hutcheson F., A Short Introduction to Moral Philosophy, Book 3, transl. W. McKenzie, Dublin 1747.
• Jefferson T., Autobiography, 1821, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/jeffauto.asp [access on: 24.10.2017].
• Jefferson T., A Summary View of the Rights of British America, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/jeffsumm.asp [access on: 12.06.2016].
• Landy M., Milkis S., American Government: Balancing Democracy and Rights, New York 2008.
• Lincoln A., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln Vol. 2, University of Michigan Digital Library Production Services 2001 https://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln2?view=toc [access on: 12.08.2017].
• Maier P., American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, New York 1998.
• Maier P., Declaring Independence, [in:] Major Problems in the Era of the American Revolution 1760-1791, 2 ed., edit. R. Brown, Boston 2000.
• McDonald R., Thomas Jefferson’s Changing Reputation as the Author of the Declaration of Independence: The First Fifty Years, “Journal of the Early Republic” 1999, No. 19(2), p. 169.
• Phillips K., 1775: A Good Year for Revolution, New York 2012.
• Robertson J., American Myth, American Reality, Toronto 1980.
• Spencer H., Stolberg S.G., White Nationalists March on University of Virginia, “The New York Times” August 12, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/us/white-nationalists-rally-charlottesville-virginia.html [access on: 18.07.2018].
• The Commission on the Bicentennial of the Constitution, We The People: The Commission on the Bicentennial of the Constitution, 1985-1992 Final Report, 1992.
• US Citizenship and Immigration Services, https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Office%20of%20Citizenship/Citizenship%20Resource%20Center%20Site/Publications/PDFs/M-654.pdf [access on: 13.10.2017].
• Weeks W., The New Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations, New York 2013.
• Wills G., Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, New York 1978.