Idea Of America Research Articles

Ideas in America's Cultures: From Republic to Mass Society. Edited by Hamilton Cravens. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1982. xxv + 199 pp. $15.95.

Ideas in America's Cultures: From Republic to Mass Society. Edited by Hamilton Cravens. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1982. xxv + 199 pp. $15.95.

A Poetics of the American Idea: The Jewish Writer and America

The history of the Jews in America is to a considerable extent the history of an idea. It is the story of how Jewish history was transformed by the idea of America and how, in turn, Jewish writers, intellectuals, artists, and public figures helped to sustain and modernize this idea. While it altered the modern Jewish experience, Jewish thinkers often led in the effort to make the idea of America relevant to the needs of an urban, industrial, and even postindustrial age. The work of such writers and thinkers served to keep the American idea meaningful in a time of competing authoritarian and totalitarian ideologies.

Scripture Notes to Lincoln's Second Inaugural

SCRIPTURE NOTES TO LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL Fred Somkin Abraham Lincoln directly quoted two Bible verses in his Second Inaugural Address. In 1968, Ernest Lee Tuveson charged that both verses were misquoted and that one had been inaccurately ascribed to the Old Testament when it more properly belonged to the New.1 Tuveson's attempt to rewrite Lincoln was part of an effort to prove that the millennialist tradition in American nationalism was specifically based on the pouring out of the vials in the Book of Revelation and not on the Old Testament prophecies of Daniel. Although his observations on the second inaugural were patently wrong, they drew little notice, and the book in which they appeared has sincebeen reprinted without change.2 As the point of the address was to give meaning to the sacrifices of the war by placing them in a biblical context, any challenge to the integrity of the emoted verses casts a cloud over a supreme piece of American iconography that ought to be unequivocally dispelled. ooooooooooooo I. Lincoln says: "W7oe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense eommeth!" Tuveson comments: "The utterances of Abraham Lincoln, as is well known, are permeated by the language of the King James Version. . . . The quotation 'Woe unto the world . . . 'is, of course, slightly changed from Matthew 18:7, Jesus' sermon on the Kingdom of Heaven." However, it is apparent that Lincoln was emoting accurately from Matthew 18:7 in the KingJames Version. There is a variation of this saying in 1 Ernest Lee Tuveson, Redeemer Nation: The Idea of America's Millennial Role (Chicago and London, 1968), pp. 206-7. 2 The present writer called attention to this point in the Wisconsin Magazine of History 52 (Winter, 1968-69): 186. Redeemer Nation was reissued as a paperback in 1974. Civil War History, Vol. XXVII, No. 2Copyright © 1981 by The Kent State University Press 0009-8078/81/2701-0005 $01.00/0 THE SECOND INAUGURAL173 Luke 17:1 ("Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offenses will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!"). II. Lincoln concludes the address with the magnificent: "Yet, ifGod wills that ... all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and . . . every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' " On this Tuveson says: "The fact that the biblical quotation in the last sentence is said to have been uttered "three thousand years ago" would point to the Old Testament, probably Psalm 119:137—'Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments'; but the actual wording is closer to the recollection of this verse in Revelation 16:7, where a voice from the altar exclaims, after the third angel has poured out his vial, 'Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.' " Obviously, Lincoln's words are not those of Psalm 119:137, but neither are they from Revelation 16:7. When he said "three thousand years ago" he meant what he said, having first written "four" and then deliberately changed it to "three."3 This was appropriate since he was emoting correctly the second half of Psalm 19:9 ("The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever: the judgments of the Lord are trueand righteous altogether ."). All his life Lincoln was accustomed to speaking before audiences who knew their Bible, and he knew his. It is not likely that Lincoln would be careless with Holy Writ on such an important occasion when his solemn theme was divine judgment. And he was not. 3 Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, N.J., 1953-55), 8:,333. ...

Issues and Ideas in America.

Issues and Ideas in America.

New Ideas in America: Creation by Natural Law . Laplace's Nebular Hypothesis in American Thought. Ronald L. Numbers. University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1977. xii, 184 pp. $15.

New Ideas in America: <i>Creation by Natural Law</i> . Laplace's Nebular Hypothesis in American Thought. Ronald L. Numbers. University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1977. xii, 184 pp. $15.

New Ideas in America: Creation by Natural Law . Laplace's Nebular Hypothesis in American Thought. Ronald L. Numbers. University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1977. xii, 184 pp. $15.

New Ideas in America: <i>Creation by Natural Law</i> . Laplace's Nebular Hypothesis in American Thought. Ronald L. Numbers. University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1977. xii, 184 pp. $15.

Innerworldly Asceticism and American Foreign Policy: A Review EssayRedeemer Nation: The Idea of America's Millennial Role.Ernest L. Tuveson

Previous articleNext article No AccessReview EssayInnerworldly Asceticism and American Foreign Policy: A Review Essay Redeemer Nation: The Idea of America's Millennial Role. Ernest L. Tuveson Phillip E. HammondPhillip E. Hammond Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 82, Number 1Jul., 1976 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/226284 Views: 2Total views on this site Copyright 1976 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Literature and Ideas in America: Essays in Memory of Harry Hayden Clark ed. by Robert Falk, and The Literary Journal in America to 1900 by Edward E. Chielens

Reviews 187 His second preoccupation is with the nature of style, and here he is much more intriguing and his ideas are more original. The very concept of style, he sees, is more comprehensive than are most of our unthinking definitons of it. Style is greater than grammar, or word choice, or syntax, or whatever. It is ultimately “the signature of the writer [which], like spoor traces, can be detected in a phrase, or the tracks of a sentence” (p. 25). Since all these stylistic tracks are individual, it follows that even though there may well be individual “bad” styles there is no single “good” style existing in some Platonic realm of pure form toward which the aspiring literary artist should aspire. Nevertheless, when all is said the value of About Fiction to any given reader will probably depend mostly on Morris’s admittedly argumentative insights than upon these general considerations. Here is where Morris as a cult author becomes important, for the significance of the various reverent reflections and irreverent observations lies not primarily in their general analysis of the nature of fiction or in their appraisal of specific authors: their significance lies rather in what they tell us of Morris himself. And indeed they tell us a great deal. They indicate Morris’s feelings about what makes both good readers and good writers. They indicate his view of the responsibilities of the novelist, of the critic, and of the student of literature. They provide “A Reader’s Sampler” of twenty-one selected works of twentieth-century fiction together w'ith Morris’s defense — often witty, always provocative — of his choices. For Morris the supreme fiction is life, and this book in praising fiction praises life itself. JAMES K. FOLSOM, University of Colorado Literature and Ideas in America: Essays in Memory of Harry Hayden Clark, ed. by Robert Falk. (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1975. 243 pages, $10.00.) The Literary Journal in America to 1900, by Edw'ard E. Chielens (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1975. 197 pages, $18.00.) Harr)' Hayden Clark taught American literature at the Universty of Wisconsin for over forty years. Literature and Ideas in America was planned to honor him in retirement; unfortunately it appears as a posthumous festschrift. The book includes eleven essays by colleagues and former stu­ dents of Clark as well as an eleven-page bibliography of his books, articles, and reviews. Robert Falk’s preface is both a brief biography and a per­ sonal tribute. The essays primarily reflect Clark’s own scholarly interests: Freneau, Emerson, Holmes, Hawthorne, Henry James. In general they reveal a close 188 Western American Literature reading of carefully selected texts with appropriate comment and rather too much quotation. Numerous footnotes (one chapter has 80), attesting to the desire of the writers to document their statements or to identify their texts, do not contribute much to the readability of the volume. Festschriften tend to be erudite rather than exciting and this is no exception. The most attractive essays are Edwin FI. Cady’s discussion of Freneau as an archetypal American poet and Benjamin Spencer’s demonstration that Gertrude Stein was more essentially American than ex-patriate. Alexander Kern’s analysis of Thoreau’s religious thought has unusual interest and Richard Rust’s reading of The Blithedale Romance and the character of Miles Coverdale is provocative, Howard Baetzhold deals definitively with a minor Twain essays and burlesque, and Merton M. Sealts and Gay Wilson Allen offer comment on Emerson, the first concentrating on the early essay “Literary Ethics,” the second reexamining Emerson’s attitude toward sci­ ence. Three essays treat novels: W. R. MacNaughton focuses on James’s The Sacred Fount, Richard A. Davison on Norris’s The Octopus, and John Stephen Martin on Holmes’s Elsie Venner and other “medicated novels.” Neil F. Doubleday scrutinizes the reviews of fiction as they appeared in the North American Review from 1815 to 1826. Edward E. Chielens’s book is a useful library tool. He groups his literary periodicals in four regional categories, within which the arrange­ ment is alphabetical. Although 1900 is the technical terminal date for consideration, journals like Harper’s and the Atlantic Monthly which are...

Redeemer Nation: The Idea of America's Millennial Role. By Ernest Lee Tuveson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974. 238 pp. $3.25 paper

Journal Article Redeemer Nation: The Idea of America's Millennial Role. By Ernest Lee Tuveson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974. 238 pp. $3.25 paper Get access Richard V. Pierard Richard V. Pierard Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Church and State, Volume 17, Issue 2, Spring 1975, Pages 344–345, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcs/17.2.344 Published: 01 March 1975

Theodore Parker and the Abolitionist Role in the 1850s

Theodore Parker and the Abolitionist Role in the 1850s

The Expatriate Perspective: American Novelists and the Idea of America

"The Expatriate Perspective: American Novelists and the Idea of America." History: Reviews of New Books, 2(10), pp. 260–261

Redeemer Nation: The Idea of America's Millennial Role by Ernest Lee Tuveson (University of Chicago Press; 133 pp.; $3.25 [paper

Redeemer Nation: The Idea of America's Millennial Role by Ernest Lee Tuveson (University of Chicago Press; 133 pp.; $3.25 [paper

On the Democratic Idea in America

On the Democratic Idea in America

The Jacksonian Economy (review)

book reviews345 covenant concept in die Civil War era. The idea of America as a covenant nation under God's judgment for the sin of slavery played a prominent part in the jeremiads of New School sermons and pamphlets during the War (p. 201). Finally, political historians will want to test Marsden's assumption that there was no correlation between political loyalties and die various Presbyterian party lines (p. 50), and tiiat evangelicals in general were politically nonaligned prior to the Civil War but strongly Republican thereafter because the War "reinforced die identification of Christian reform and Republicanism" (p. 240). The political implications of pre- or post-millennial theologies also need to be explored (pp. 193, 197). In sum, this is a sympathetic, balanced analysis of the evangelical mind during the Middle Period that will long remain a standard sequel to Perry Miller's work on the Puritan mind. Hopefully, Professor Marsden will pursue further the question raised in his suggestive epilogue and a subsequent article in the Westminster Theological Journal (1970), namely, the relation between the New School—Old School denominations and twentieth century fundamentalism and liberalism in the Presbyterian Church. This is a big order, but worthy of a scholar owning both a bachelor of divinity degree and a history doctorate. Robert P. Swierenga Kent State University The Jacksonian Economy. By Peter Temin. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1971.Pp. 208. $1.95.) Professor Temin is an economist who has done some homework that historians should have done years ago. His book demonstrates once again the fallacy of assuming that past events necessarily occurred the way highly biased observers said diey did, by revealing the shakiness of the conventional wisdom concerning the Jackson era boom and its aftermath. Temin contends tiiat the boom of 1834-37 was not a product of Andrew Jackson's influence on banks, that neither the Specie Circular nor the Deposit Law of 1836 created sufficient pressure to trigger the Panic of 1837, and that the contraction period of the early 1840's was not as bad as it is customary to think. Disregarding the long-influential verdicts of Biddle and Gallatin, Temin has explored and combined fairly available but neglected data—for example, Treasury Department reports on the condition of state banks, 1834-41—to show instead that "The economy was not the victim of Jacksonian politics; Jackson's politics were the victims of economic fluctuations, (p. 17)." Briefly, Temin's revisionist thesis is that the boom resulted not from bank note over-issue but from the retention of silver in this country, made possible by changes in the tripartite trade in specie, opium and capital involving the United States, China and Britain. Indeed, bank 346CIVIL WAR HISTORY reserve ratios, the ratios of specie to money, remained essentially unchanged during the inflationary years, and the land boom, instead of encouraging banks to over-issue notes with each recycling of land sale proceeds, served to damp inflation by absorbing some of the increased money supply. Temin also convincingly argues that the Panic of 1837 rose not from domestic economic causes (though he admits that the Specie Circular had psychological significance) but from pressures imposed by the Bank of England and from the impact of those pressures on American cotton prices. And he points out that the hard times of 1839-43 are more accurately styled "deflation" than "depression," for unlike the period 1929-33, they witnessed actual increases in real consumption and in gross national product. It is hard to fault Temin's effort except to note that he makes the standard version of Jacksonian economics a bit too monolithic; he fails, for instance, to note the divergent and not uninfluential recent interpretation of the period by Douglass North. Otherwise he has made his case well and has stated it with great clarity. More, perhaps, than most revisions , Temin's will be inconvenient to reconcile with the accepted version, but all who deal with the Jacksonian period will now have to confront the task. Rodney O. Davis Knox College Jacksonian Democracy in New Hampshire, 1800-1851. By Donald B. Cole. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970. Pp. xi, 283. $10.00.) In this well-researched...

THE UNIVERSALISTIC EVOLUTIONISM OF CHARLES SANDERS PEIRCE

The Southern Journal of PhilosophyVolume 9, Issue 3 p. 327-333 THE UNIVERSALISTIC EVOLUTIONISM OF CHARLES SANDERS PEIRCE W. H. Werkmeister, W. H. Werkmeister Florida State University W. H. Werkmeister, Professor of Philosophy at the Florida State University in Tallahassee, received his Ph.D. in 1927 from the University of Nebraska. He remained on the staff of the Department of Philosophy at Nebraska until 1953. He was director pro tem of the Institute for American Culture at the University of Berlin, 1936/37, and a visiting professor at Harvard during 1950/51. From 1953 until 1966, he was director of the school of philosophy, University of Southern California. In 1966 he was appointed to his present position. From 1959 until 1966, he was the editor of The Personalist. He is a past-president of the American Philosophical Association (Pacific Division). He is the editor of three books and the author of eight. His History of Philosophical Ideas in America, first published in 1949, has been republished in Braille and on tape by the Library of Congress. His most recent books are: Man and His Values (University of Nebraska Press, 1967), and Historical Spectrum of Value Theories, Vol. I: “The German-Language Group” (Johnsen Publishing Company, 1970). The second volume, now in preparation, will cover the Anglo-American Group from 1875 to the present.Search for more papers by this author W. H. Werkmeister, W. H. Werkmeister Florida State University W. H. Werkmeister, Professor of Philosophy at the Florida State University in Tallahassee, received his Ph.D. in 1927 from the University of Nebraska. He remained on the staff of the Department of Philosophy at Nebraska until 1953. He was director pro tem of the Institute for American Culture at the University of Berlin, 1936/37, and a visiting professor at Harvard during 1950/51. From 1953 until 1966, he was director of the school of philosophy, University of Southern California. In 1966 he was appointed to his present position. From 1959 until 1966, he was the editor of The Personalist. He is a past-president of the American Philosophical Association (Pacific Division). He is the editor of three books and the author of eight. His History of Philosophical Ideas in America, first published in 1949, has been republished in Braille and on tape by the Library of Congress. His most recent books are: Man and His Values (University of Nebraska Press, 1967), and Historical Spectrum of Value Theories, Vol. I: “The German-Language Group” (Johnsen Publishing Company, 1970). The second volume, now in preparation, will cover the Anglo-American Group from 1875 to the present.Search for more papers by this author First published: Fall 1971 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-6962.1971.tb01031.xCitations: 1 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume9, Issue3Fall 1971Pages 327-333 RelatedInformation

The Appellate Opinion as Historical Source Material

The Appellate Opinion as Historical Source Material American legal history has recently piqued the curiosity of historians and legal scholars seeking to make connections between their respective disciplines. Underlying this interest is the assumption that the working materials of the legal profession-cases, statutes, treatises, and the like-reflect to some degree the changing patterns of American civilization and may fruitfully be viewed as indices of the general tone of American culture at various points in time. This assumption may seem hardly worth lingering over, especially to historians accustomed to noting the ways in which institutions and ideas in America have taken on distinctive forms during particular time periods. Yet the inclusion of appellate court decisions in the general category of materials considered representative of the style and substance of intellectual contributions at a given point in American history raises a number of troublesome problems in interdisciplinary communication. I am concerned here with identifying some of those problems and with proposing one methodological approach designed to alleviate them. Specifically, my focus is on the factors that distinguish appellate opinions from the general mass of recorded social phenomena available to the historian, the relationship between these factors and the development in the legal profession of a particular set of techniques for analyzing material, and some of the implications of this development for the potential scholar in legal history. By focusing upon some of the problems in a historical treatment of appellate court decisions, I am, of course, eschewing the rather ordinary matter of legal history, which Hurst has found so stimulating for what he calls issues of high politics.I This is not to suggest that appellate decision-making should necessarily be the central concern of legal historians. My emphasis upon appellate decisions stems primarily from the fact that they have traditionally been the core materials of legal education in America-the practice field, as it were, on which a set of

Field Medical Services at the Battles of Manassas (review)

book reviews279 social experience in the minds of men made manifest in symbolic action." While his interests are far-ranging, from Benjamin Franklin's personification of the seeming opposites in the American character to the symbolism of Lindbergh's flight, readers of Civil War History will be especially attracted by Ward's analysis of James Fenimore Cooper's The Prairie and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Ward insists that The Prairie is of greater social significance than the more widely read of the Leatherstoeking Tales because Cooper attempts in the novel to illustrate the conflict in American life between the real and the ideal or between Nature and Civilization; it is a theme which Ward believes to be an enduring one in American literature, still surviving as late as Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Cooper's own ambivalence was the result of his living and writing in an age in which the first consequences of industrial civilization were visible. The discussion of Uncle Tom's Cabin is an excellent correlation of theory and fact. The novel's enormous popularity, Ward contends, is due not only to the serial-like suspense of the story itself but also because Mrs. Stowe touched upon a universal theme in human experience: a journey which symbolizes the quest for life's meaning. Involved as well were the ancient problems of freedom and the role of the individual in society. Ward's explication demonstrates incisively how literature may reveal much of a society's inner dynamics and be of invaluable assistance to the cultural historian. The historian of ideas in America will discover much in this volume to stimulate his own thinking. He will not always agree with Professor Ward's perceptions or his points of emphasis, but he will always find him to be civilized and humane and one who provokes serious thought. Timothy P. Donovan University of Arkansas Field Medical Services at the Battles of Manassas. By Horace H. Cunningham . (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1968. Pp. xii, 116. $2.50.) This brief narrative is concerned with the medical services provided on the battlefield during the first two years of the Civil War. The focus is on the battles of Manassas (Bull Run) and the general theme is that the field health services reflected in microcosm the disorganization of the "improvised war" of 1861-62. Within this seeming chaos, however, Professor Cunningham has detected a growing emphasis on the coordination of the military ambulance services. The "progress" from chaos to more efficient methods of distributing medical services on the battlefield is the central concern of his narrative. There were no professional ambulance personnel to speak of at the beginning of the war. In the Union Army, the task was usually assumed by members of the regimental band. The field hospitals which they es- 280CIVIL WAR HISTORY tablished were inadequately supplied and poorly coordinated. If field medical care was in fact a variable in the balance of the battle, the rout of the Federals at First Manassas is clearly understandable. Yet Cunningham 's description of the medical services in the Confederate ranks points out that they were no better. They had "no genuine ambulance service" and in many cases, the wounded relied largely on self-care. In the months following First Manassas, the Union Army made a conscious , if somewhat futile, effort to systematize the facilities and improve the personnel of its ambulance corps. The Confederate leaders also confronted the problem, but less intensively. When the two sides squared off again in August, 1862, there were few basic changes in evidence. Certain crucial modifications were being advanced, however, especially in the Union Army and these were enlarged upon in later battles. The "ordeal " at Manassas, then, is seen as the arena for the reform of field medical services. Civil War buffs should not be frightened away by the title of the book. Although his primary interest is with medical services, Cunningham rarely strays far from the concerns of military history. Battle plans are clearly drawn, regiments are in line, and exposed flanks are swiftly assaulted ! The social historian interested in medicine and public health, on the other hand, may also find something...

“Strangers and pilgrims”: The migrant archetype in the cinema of Terrence Malick

The migrant archetype is a prevailing motif of the cinema directed by Terrence Malick to date: most of his main characters share the condition of being displaced or nomadic people. This article is focused on analysing six films –belonging to different periods of Malick’s filmography– in which this condition is significantly emphasized: Days of Heaven (1978), The Thin Red Line (1998), The New World (2005), The Tree of Life (2011), To the Wonder (2012) and Knight of Cups (2015). The aim of this study is to reflect upon the central role of the migrant archetype in the works of Malick, showing to what extent the essential features of this archetype are inherited from United States mythology. In the end, this connection between film and myth is due to a common ground: on one hand, the thought of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson about the idea of America, revisited in the last decades by the philosopher Stanley Cavell; on the other, the legend of the first New England settlers, in which the biblical theme of exodus and the figure of the pilgrim are fundamental. Thus, I aim to prove how –and explain on what grounds– both in the construction of Malick’s migrant characters and in the mythic representation of the American migrant the same feature stands out: the condition of “stranger and pilgrim”.

Redeemer Nation: The Idea of America's Millennial Role.

Redeemer Nation: The Idea of America's Millennial Role.

John Orville Taylor: A Forgotten Educator

JOHN ORVILLE TAYLOR was one of many prominent educators of the eighteen thirties and forties who labored continually to win public support for popular education. One can safely infer that his efforts to muster common school support were comparable with those of his more publicized contemporaries; yet today he receives little recognition from educational historians for the part he played in laying the groundwork for the American public school. Burke A. Hinsdale's Notes on the History of Foreign Influence upon Education in the United States (i) was one of the earliest works to cite Taylor as the man who furnished an American preface in 1835 to Sarah Austin's partial translation of Victor Cousin's famous Report on the State of Public Instruction in Prussia. The auspicious appearance at this time in America of part of Cousin's work provided timely justification for Americans struggling with the traditional resistance to universal education. Prussia's common, normal and higher schools were excellent; consequently, the publicity given by Taylor to her overall system helped immeasurably to quicken the metabolism of American education. Considering the influence of Prussian education upon American schools, it is proper then to mention Taylor's role in the early practice of imitating an exemplary foreign model. It is also important to note that Taylor was not alone in popularizing German ideas in America, but his efforts were early enough to stimulate others to action later on.