America Imagined
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America Imagined Explaining the United States in Nineteenth-Century Europe and Latin America Edited by Axel Körner, Nicola Miller, and Adam I. P. Smith
AMERICA IMAGINED Copyright Axel Körner, Nicola Miller, and Adam I. P. Smith, 2012 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-1-137-01897-7 All rights reserved. First published in 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the World, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-43729-0 ISBN 978-1-137-01898-4 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9781137018984 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data America imagined : explaining the United States in nineteenth-century Europe and Latin America / edited by Axel Körner, Nicola Miller, and Adam I. P. Smith. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. 1. United States Civilization Public opinion History 19th century. 2. United States Civilization 19th century. 3. United States Foreign public opinion, European. 4. United States Foreign public opinion, Latin American. 5. Public opinion Europe History 19th century. 6. Public opinion Latin America History 19th century. I. Körner, Axel, 1967 II. Miller, Nicola. III. Smith, Adam I. P. E169.1.A445 2012 973.5 dc23 2012005775 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Integra Software Services First edition: September 2012 10987654321
Contents List of Illustrations Preface vii ix Introduction 1 Axel Körner 1 Land of Opportunity? 19 Adam I. P. Smith 2 A Model Republic 51 Kate Ferris 3 Liberty, Lipstick, and Lobsters 81 Nicola Miller 4 Barbarous America 125 Axel Körner 5 A World Apart, a Race Apart? 161 Maike Thier 6 Slavery and Abolition 191 Natalia Bas, Kate Ferris, and Nicola Miller Conclusion 225 Nicola Miller Select Bibliography 241 Index 259
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List of Illustrations Cover Image: Title: Edward Moran, Unveiling the Statue of Liberty (1886). Edward Moran (1829-1901) was an English artist living in Paris and New York. Therefore, Unveiling the Statue of Liberty is an English painting representing a French image of the United States. Museum of the City of New York. Young Benjamin [Franklin] in his father s factory 118 Machine to make Yankees 119 Harriet Beecher Stowe, ca. 1870s 1880s 120 Karl May s Winnetou, first edition in book format (Freiburg im Breisgau: Verlag Friedrich Ernst Fehsenfeld, 1893) 121 Uncle Tom at the whipping post. Scene from a stage production, ca.1901 122 Brazil and the United States 123
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Preface The origins of this book go back to a comparative research project hosted by the Centre for Transnational History at University College London, entitled The American Way of Life: Images of the United States in Nineteenth-Century Europe and Latin America. The project was generously funded for four years by the United Kingdom s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The scope of the research for this book was such that it could only be done collaboratively, and one of the book s distinctive features is that it has been devised and written collectively, including the drafting of its individual chapters. Each chapter adopts a thematic approach, focusing on specific national contexts as appropriate to the theme, but then integrates these examples into a wider comparative and transnational framework. Although each contributor took responsibility for a specific theme, hence the individual attributions, the chapters are the outcome of a comparative discussion between all of the authors of this book. As a result of this approach, our book aims to be more than an edited collection of individually composed chapters. A number of research assistants associated with the project helped to locate and collect primary sources: Esme Cleall, Federico Mazzini, Nico Pizzolato, Katharina Rietzler, Paul Shirley, and Stephen Wilkinson. We would also like to thank UCL s Department of History for its institutional support. We valued the opportunity to present and discuss our project at a number of workshops and seminars, including events organized by the Institute for the Study of the Americas, the Institute of Historical Research, the Central European University, the University of Jena, Brown University, the University of Warwick, and the University of St. Andrews. On all of these occasions we received valuable comments and criticisms. In particular, we would like to acknowledge Kathleen Burk, Stephen Conway, James Dunkerley, Maurizio Isabella, Donald Sassoon, and Guy Thomson, as well as the anonymous reviewers of our project application and the book proposal. We are also grateful to Karl-May-Verlag for granting permission to use an image free of charge. Some aspects of this book have been discussed previously in articles for which references are given in individual chapters as well as in the bibliography at the end of this book.