America Imagined [electronic resource] : Explaining the United States in Nineteenth-Century Europe and Latin America /
Körner, Axel.author.
Smith, Adam I. P.author.
Miller, N.editor.
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.
Description based upon print version of record.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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.
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.
United States-History.
History, Modern.
Europe-History.
Social history.
America-History.
Civilization-History.
US History.
Modern History.
European History.
Social History.
History of the Americas.
Cultural History.