The Rediscovery of America

The Rediscovery of America features some twenty representatives of England, France and America, whose careers in some sense straddled the Atlantic in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. While not establishing causal links between the American and French Revolutions, the collective weight of these individual responses to the new America supports the idea of an 'Atlantic Revolution'. This study of the writings and transatlantic experiences of the revolutionary generation shows the power of American images in shaping political rhetoric, if not political reality.

Autorentext

STUART ANDREWS was a scholar of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in the 1950s, after national service in the Parachute Brigade. He is author of three other books on the eighteenth century, and of numerous articles and reviews. Besides teaching his career has included such part-time roles as librarian, editor of a professional journal, school inspector and freelance lecturer. He has also been Headmaster of Norwich School and Clifton College.

Inhalt
Preface Acknowledgements PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Discovery and Re-discovery: Planters, Puritans and Philosophes PART TWO: FOUNDING FATHERS IN AMERICA Porcelain and Revolutionary Principles: Franklin and the French American Encyclopste : Jefferson at Home and Abroad Reluctant Philosophe : John Adams and Republican Government PART THREE: TRANS-ATLANTIC CITIZENS Bridging the Atlantic: Paine's Three Revolutions Burke's Grasshoppers: Dr Price as 'Apostle of Liberty' Flammable Gas: Priestley as Propagandist Land-agent of Liberty: South Carolina's Thomas Cooper PART FOUR: FRENCHMEN IN AMERICA Slaves, Quakers and 'Free Americans': Brissot's America and the French Revolution Hero of Two Worlds: La Fayette, Freemasons and Liberty Allies in Arms: Sr, Lauzun and Chastellux PART FIVE: IMAGES AND VISIONS Arm-chair Philosophy: Raynal's Best-seller The American Farmer: Hector St John Crcoeur Women and Emigrants: Mary Wollstonecraft and Gilbert Imlay Poets' Utopia: Coleridge, Southey and the Susquehanna North American Naturalists: Bartram and Audubon Notes Bibliography Index