America Imagined

Why has "America" - that is, the United States of America - become so much more than simply a place in the imagination of so many people around the world? In both Europe and Latin America, the United States has often been a site of multiple possible futures, a screen onto which could be projected utopian dreams and dystopian nightmares. Whether castigated as a threat to civilized order or championed as a promise of earthly paradise, America has invariably been treated as a cipher for modernity. It has functioned as an inescapable reference point for both European and Latin American societies, not only as a model of social and political organization - one to reject as much one to emulate - but also as the prime example of a society emerging from a dramatic diversity of cultural and social backgrounds.

The book covers a variety of aspects of the USA, from political culture to gender patterns to slavery The juxtaposition of European and Latin American viewpoints is an important contribution, particularly in light of the extent to which nineteenth century Latin American elites saw themselves as European or sought European cultural patterns to improve their nations The book brings together six historians, all with different specializations, who unusually have worked closely together in developing the project, giving it a welldeveloped framework even as it explores the specifics of various national contexts

Autorentext

Axel Körner is a Reader in Modern European History, University College London, UK.

Nicola Miller is a Professor of Latin American History, University College London, UK.

Adam I. P. Smith is a Senior Lecturer in US History, University College London, UK.

Inhalt
Land of Opportunity Adam I. P. Smith
A Model Republic Kate Ferris
Liberty, Lipstick and Lobsters Nicola Miller
Barbarous America Axel Körner
A World Apart, A Race Apart Maike Their
Slavery and Abolition Natalia Bas, Kate Ferris and Nicola Miller