Millennialism in America: Recent Studies

Abstract

The trouble with the present, it has been said, is that the future isn't what it used to be. Comparison of our centennial and bicentennial celebrations tends to substantiate that claim. On July 4,1876, the American people focused their attention on local patriotic celebrations and on the international Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, where twentyfive per cent of the American population gathered during the Exposition's six-month lifespan to celebrate the marvelous achievements of one hundred years and to examine inventions and ideas designed for improving life in this land of the On July 4, 1976, the masses of Americans, after having been encouraged to do your own thing by the Bicentennial Commission, relaxed on beaches or in backyards, joining other Americans only to watch on TV eighteen tall ships from around the globe sail into New York harbor. Americans flew into the tricentennial on the wings of nostalgia, hedonism, presentism, and pessimism. Having lost what Jacob Bronowski called in 1948 A Sense of the Future, the American people no longer feel equal to the future, much less envision themselves as the future's fulfilment. are not afraid of the future because of a bomb. We are afraid of bombs because we have no faith in the future. We no longer have faith in our ability, as individuals or as nations, to control our own Americans are prone neither to believe in the future nor, as Robert Frost contended was more indigenous