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AML 4213: Journeys to
America
Spring 2012
Crevecoeur and De Tocqueville
These
two authors are European, and comment on the new nation as outsiders,
sympathetic to the “American” experiment, but also seeing threats that are intrinsic
to democracy.
Before you Read Them, Take, via Below,
a Quick History Chronology Lesson So that You Can Place Our Course’s
Authors/Texts in a Rough Timeline (You Don’t Need to Memorize!):
1492 Columbus
"discovers" Americas.
1502 First Africans
taken to work in Americas.
1517 Martin Luther's
95 Theses--Protestant reformation begins.
1521 Conquest of
Mexico by Cortez.
1543 Copernicus
refutes 'Geocentric' view of universe (earth no longer center of Creation).
1603 Queen
Elizabeth dies; James I rules until 1625; Charles I until 1649.
1607 Founding of
Jamestown in Virginia.
1611 Shakespeare's The
Tempest.
1620 William Bradford
and "Pilgrim Fathers" land at Plymouth.
1637 Descartes' Meditations
published (in which appears the most famous line in philosophy, "I
think, therefore I am").
1640 John Winthrop delivers sermon
aboard the Arabella.
1642 English Civil War begins (country
divided between pro-Catholic loyalists to Charles I and Protestant landed
nobleman and propertied classes, who feel the king has disregarded their
traditional rights and privileges; more democratical, radical groups‑‑the
Levellers‑‑are also against the king).
1642 Galileo
(born in 1564) dies.
1643 Louis XIV
("the Great" or the "Sun King") of France begins 72
year reign.
1649 Charles I, son of James I,
son of Queen Mary ("Bloody Mary"), sister to Queen Elizabeth, is
beheaded; Cromwell, a radical Puritan, leads the parliamentary Commonwealth
to 1660.
1651 Hobbes' Leviathan
(a famous political treatise defending absolute monarchy) published.
1660 Restoration
of monarchy in England; Charles II rules.
1662 Puritan
"Half-Way Covenant".
1665 Black Death
hits London.
1682 William Penn
founds Quaker colony in Pennsylvania.
1682 Mary Rowlandson's
A Narrative published (she dies probably in 1678).
1685 Charles II,
on the throne since 1660, dies; James II (a Catholic) becomes king.
1687 Newton's Principia Mathematica.
The Einstein of his age, Newton's theories of matter/motion seem to explain
the workings of the universe‑‑an optimistic sense of being able
to control nature ensues. God no longer perceived as routinely
intervening in the cosmos; instead, the Deity has created a perfectly
rational, harmonious universe (like a super-complex watch), and he is best
known by understanding his creation, the natural world.
1688 English
"Glorious Revolution." William III (Protestant) usurps the throne,
by invitation
of
Parliament (from now on, government in Britain is parliamentary, with kings
& queens increasingly becoming only symbolic figureheads).
1690 Locke's Essay Concerning Human
Understanding published. Main theory is that our minds are
"blank slates" when we are born. There are no inborn ideas
(traditional Christian notion of innate depravity, the inheritance of Adam
and Eve's sin, loses validity for intellectuals of the period); we gain
knowledge only through experience and our environment. Consequently,
education becomes very important‑‑perhaps humankind can be
perfected in the progress of time. Combined with optimism from
Newton's scientific ideas, the so-called "Age of Enlightenment"
emerges in full swing. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and
company all read and took Locke to heart.
1690 Two
Treatises on Civil Government published, to legitimate the overthrow of
James II.
1692 Puritan Witchcraft trials in
Salem, Mass. (rationality eventually wins out over mass hysteria; U.S.
becomes more and more secular).
1702 William III
dies. Queen Anne reigns to 1714.
1706 Benjamin Franklin
born (dies in 1790).
1713 Elizabeth
Ashbridge born (dies in 1755).
1721 J.S. Bach
completes the Brandenburg Concertos.
1735 Swedish naturalist Linnaeus
publishes The System of Nature‑‑descriptive system
designed to classify all the plants on the earth, known and unknown,
according to the characteristics of their reproductive parts.
1743 Thomas Jefferson born (dies
in 1826).
1762 J.J. Rousseau publishes Emile,
in which he sketches a method of education that would preserve the natural
goodness of children by allowing relatively free expression of their
inclinations.
1764 Mozart
(aged eight) writes his first symphony.
1769 Watt
patents the steam-engine; Industrial Age takes off.
1773 Captain Cook
("discoverer" of Hawaii) brings Omai, a native of the Polynesian
island of Huahine, back to England, where he is entertained by the aristocracy
and causes a sensation. Signals fascination with "noble
savage"‑‑a main theme of "Romanticism." By
the end of the 18th-century, a very complicated and competitive
international network of commerce and colonialism has emerged.
1773 Phillis Wheatley publishes
"On Being Brought from Africa to America".
1775 American Revolution begins.
1776 Adam Smith publishes The Wealth
of Nations: establishes "laissez faire" principle: capitalism
is like a self-regulating clock, so no need to regulate working conditions.
1782 Crevecoeur
publishes "What is an American" in Letters from an American
Farmer.
1787 U.S.
Constitution signed.
1789 Parisians storm the
Bastille: English government clamps down on dissent. Fear of
"mob rule" makes it difficult for workers to articulate
grievances. Wordsworth, Blake, and other Romantic poets greatly
enthusiastic about the democratical energy unleashed by the revolution.
1793 Louis XVI
and Marie Antoinette of France executed.
1789 Olaudah Equiano's
The Life.... is published.
1791 Toussaint
L'Ouverture leads slave rebellion against French in Haiti.
1794 Thomas Paine
publishes scandalous Age of Reason (debunks Old Testament as
superstitious myth).
1800 Thomas Jefferson becomes
third President of U.S.
1803 Louisiana Purchase ("Manifest
Destiny" ideology, right of nation to appropriate western lands, kicks
in).
1804 Immanuel Kant, German
"Idealist" philosopher, dies. Basic philosophical premise is
that we cannot absolutely know "reality" because it is always
shaped, a priori, by the mind's faculties. Will influence
Romantic celebration of the shaping power of imagination.
1804 Beethoven
composes his Third Symphony, "Eroica".
1807 Robert
Fulton's steamboat.
1814 First steam locomotive.
1821 Napoleon (defeated in 1815)
dies: the British Romantic Period more or less ends. "Captains
of Industry" become the heroes of the Victorian Age.
1826 James F. Cooper
publishes Last of the Mohicans (Indians either
"savage" or "noble").
1828 Andrew Jackson becomes U.S.
President. "Orphan, frontiersman, horseracing man, Indian
fighter, war hero, and land speculator, Andrew Jackson embodied the new
American spirit and became the idol of the ambitious, jingoistic younger
men who now called themselves Democrats. At its best, Jacksonian
democracy meant an opening of the political process to more people
(although blacks, women, and Indians still remained political nonentities).
The flip side was that it represented a new level of militant,
land-frenzied, slavery-condoning, Indian-killing greed" (qtd. from
Kenneth Davis).
1830 Opening of
Liverpool-Manchester railroad: allows for rapid transport of coal, etc.
between industrial areas of England.
1832 First Reform Bill in
England: extends vote to middle-class owners of property (but working
classes must wait until 1867, when the Second Reform Bill passes).
1833 All slaves
emancipated in the British Empire.
1837 Queen
Victoria begins reign--Victorian stuffiness/prudery, etc.
1838 First
transatlantic steamship crossing.
1839 Opium War
begins (ends 1842): England forces free trade upon China.
1843 Karl Marx meets Engels;
during the 1840's widespread unemployment, depression, and famine leads to
rioting throughout Europe; massive immigration from Ireland to U.S.
1844 Frederick
Douglass publishes Narrative of the Life of FD.
1848 Marx and
Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
1851 The Great Exhibition in
London‑‑a celebration of the wonders of technological progress
(world perceived‑‑by the middle-class, that is‑‑as
dynamically changing, for the better).
1852 Otis invents the first
elevator with a safety break.
1853 Charles Dickens publishes Hard
Times‑‑a novel about exploited English factory workers.
1856 Bessemer announces new
process for making high-quality, low-cost steel. When combined with
the Otis elevator, this makes possible the modern skyscraper.
1859 Darwin
publishes Origin of Species.
1861 U.S. Civil War
begins.
1865 Lister
introduces antiseptic practices in hospitals.
1876 Bell
patents the telephone.
1879 Edison
invents the incandescent bulb.
1880's Britain and European
nations colonize Africa.
1901 Queen
Victoria dies.
1917 Lenin leads
the Bolshevik Revolution (which will lead to Communist Russia, Cold War,
etc.).
Now, Focus More Specifically on the Westward
Expansion of the Nation, after the era of Equiano and Franklin (what is
called the “Early National Period,” 1790-1820 or so):
1.
Louisiana Purchase of 1803 from France: vast area b/w Mississippi and the
Rocky Mountains acquired: virtually a blank on the maps.
2.
Lewis and Clark publish in 1814: History of the Expedition Under the
Command of Captains Lewis and Clark to the Sources of the Missouri, Thence
Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific
Ocean.
3.
This expedition stimulated fur trade (for beaver pelt) up the Missouri. It
was conducted by reckless breed of uncouth mountain men. They pioneered
routes for other explorers and emigrants to Western territories.
4.
This leads to an imperialistic war against Mexico in 1845: Southwest
territories acquired.
5.
By 1845-46 exploration/settlement/military presence on Pacific
coast--Oregon and California.
6.
Throughout this period a feeling that the US had a “Manifest Destiny”, a
natural right, to conquer/inhabit/claim entire North Continent of America,
from East to West—to create an “empire of freedom,” as one common slogan of
the day put it.
7.
The ideology of Manifest Destiny, however, still somewhat abstract, until
1848 when the Gold Rush began. Before the Gold Rush the Western
territories were perceived as remote from the normal patterns of American
society. With Gold Rush, hugh influx of Easterners to California almost
overnight, West becomes major locale for adventure and settlement.
8.
Indians pushed onto reservations; era of U.S. cavalry and Indian wars.
9.
Railroads push west; open up territory for farms, grazing lands. Era of
robber barons, etc.
10.
A very big abrupt leap forward: the U.S. space race and science fiction in
general represents both the pastoral impulse for “virgin” territory and the
engineering/Franklineqsue impulse of entrepreneurialism. I.e. Star
Trek is, in effect, another Western (aliens replace Indians).
The Above History Lesson Should Help
You See How Pivotal Crevecouer and Detocqueville are in Understanding
“America” Right After the Nation is Formed:
Crevecoeur
articulates a number of key aspects of U.S. national identity. Ponder
which you believe are, in fact, more a matter of ideology/myth (the ideas we
tell ourselves to maintain consensus, patriotism, etc.--even if they don't
ring true in actuality):
1) vast middle-class: no class structure
2)
positive image of tillers of soil
3)
mild gov’t: not coercive
4)
Americans are self-reliant entrepreneurs
5)
American’s are a mix of immigrants (but white)
6)
America is the land of opportunity--individuals gain rewards of their labor
7)
America is a “melting pot” where you lose your ethnicity
8)
classic liberalism (“Liberalism” means the opposite today): liberated to
pursue your own self-interest
And
yet such potentiality (the freedom from Old World class hierarchy) can also
lead to a sense of anomie and disconnectedness: think of the isolated
characters in Brown's Wieland; think of Irving's "Rip Van
Winkle" (next week) as perhaps about the
dislocations/disconnectedness/isolation that follows from democracy.
The other e-text from Alexis De Tocqueville's Democracy in America
(1832) profoundly ponders the pros/cons of the “American Experiment”:
we are all connected, in the U.S., through an ideology of upward mobility
and opportunity; but our obsessive mobility (you live in Miami, now,
perhaps with your parents, yet you’ll likely end up working in some other
state), and our superficial bond to locale and past generations (in all
ways), and our (especially right now in the political arena) lack of
national cohesion or consensus… all leads to a retreat within the nuclear
family and a primal solitude. Of course, to go back to the beginning
of the semester, Caliban would be happier (perhaps?) leaving his island and
not being under the rule of Prospero, and going, say, to New York (as it
were) and dating many potential Mirandas and working on Wall Street.
But then he would suffer a different form of alienation, maybe a midlife
crisis, and get nostalgic about the good ole’ days with his lord Prospero.
The brilliance of DeTocqueville is that he anticipated the “American” fate
180 years ago!
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