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Early American and Contemporary European Conceptions of the Nation, 1763–1789
Author(s) -
KOSTANTARAS DEAN
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.12
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1468-229X
pISSN - 0018-2648
DOI - 10.1111/1468-229x.12719
Subject(s) - declaration of independence , colonialism , independence (probability theory) , conversation , repertoire , subject (documents) , declaration , history , political science , political economy , sociology , law , literature , politics , art , statistics , mathematics , communication , library science , computer science
This article examines how the term ‘nation’ was used in texts originating from North America immediately before and after the revolution, as well as notable omissions. Colonial authors often referred, for example, to nations, however allusions to an ‘American nation’ were rare, and indeed are wholly absent from such fundamental works as the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation. These tendencies, it is argued throughout, reflect the important influence of broader international trends in thought – some of which have not been adequately documented in previous treatments of the subject – on local usages and self‐understandings. When such texts are put into conversation with works from across the Atlantic, one gains not only a clearer picture of colonial sensibilities and aims, but the manner in which their conceptual repertoire was informed by a larger Anglo‐European traffic in ideas.