Being American in Europe, 1750–1860 by Daniel Kilbride (review)

Abstract

Being Europe, 1750-1860. By Daniel Kilbride. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013. Pp. 230. Cloth. $34.95.)Reviewed by Charlene Boyer LewisOnce they became independent, Americans struggled for decades to what being American actually meant. Even though they had thrown off their political ties to England, still proved a powerful influence as Americans crafted a national identity. Following on impressive earlier work that examined formation and impact of cross-regional elite identities antebellum America, Daniel Kilbride creatively uses views of Americans who traveled to Europe between 1750 and 1860 to reveal how Old World continued to shape Americans' ideas of themselves and their society long after Revolution. Indeed, Kilbride persuasively argues, Americans' opinions of Europe played a crucial role creation of an during this era of nation building.Admitting at start that only a tiny, if growing, number of Americans traveled to Europe years before 1860, Kilbride rightly insists that these travelers' writings provide an unparalleled perspective on how Americans defined themselves within and against Europe formative period of national identity (7). Traveling men and women, who, of course, were mainly white and wealthy, found themselves on the front lines, as Kilbride states, in struggle about place of United States within Western Civilization and about and political meanings of Europe for fledgling nation (6). Far from dismissing Old World as irrelevant to society, these travelers knew there were many lessons-both good and bad-to be learned from examining Europe closely. Across decades, they constantly compared and assessed their nation's political and values with those of European countries they visited and, end, came to a generally shared consensus about definition of Americanness. Americans visiting Europe regularly confronted some of major issues Americans hotly disputed at home. What should nature of their relationship with Great Britain be? What were dangers and attractions of aristocratic culture for republican citizens? Similarly, and not unimportantly this era, what were dangers and attractions of Catholicism? Also, should (and how could) Americans help promote liberal ideas and movements Old World? Ultimately, Kilbride concludes, they wondered how United States and Americans could create national distinctiveness while remaining linked to Europe.Kilbride's study is organized chronologically. Colonial travelers established an early pattern of ambivalence toward Old World, believing that Americans could benefit much from Europe, while Atlantic Ocean would insulate them from European imperfections (10). Many colonials returned home quite satisfied with their provincial lives. After Revolution, republican citizens worried immensely about corrupting influence of European politics and culture, but also wanted to maintain various connections with Europe. While still deferring to European cultural authority, traveling Americans early decades of nation building sought to define an vis-a-vis Europe that staked out a distinctive nationalism while situating republic within Atlantic community (46). Aristocrats and their elite culture proved a real dilemma for republican travelers, as they truly admired, but simultaneously feared, palaces, fashions, and finery. …