America and the American Revolution in British Geographical Thought, c.1760–1830

Abstract

Abstract This article investigates British ideas about ‘America’ in the years before and after the American Revolution. What characteristics and qualities were thought to distinguish the continent from other parts of the globe? How did the Revolution affect ideas about ‘American’ space? Existing studies tend to present the Revolution as a disruptive moment in British intellectual life. Instead, this article analyses mainstream geographical works—sources which, due to their popularity and summative nature, can help expose the longstanding, formative ideas about America circulating widely in British literate culture. Collectively, these books interpreted America both as a novel space literally and conceptually outside the ‘Old World’ and as a space defined in terms of Britain and its European neighbours. Significantly, the books’ responses to the Revolution were shaped by the same conceptual frameworks. This means that, far from signalling a comprehensive shift in British perceptions of the continent, Revolutionary events were inserted into established narratives; they were used to reinforce and amplify existing structures and terminologies for understanding America in British literate culture.