Boats Against the Current: American Culture between Revolution and Modernity, 1820-1860
Traditionally, historians have claimed that modern American history starts in the early 20th century, but Perry (history, Vanderbilt) argues that elements of modernism began in the Age of Jackson. By examining the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville, Fredrika Bremer, Henry Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author shows that "modern intellectual life has important parallels in antebellum America." Perry's book is thoroughly researched but has some flaws: the definition of modernism is not discussed until Part 5, and the conclusion does not tie the loose threads together. Perry synthesizes well the ideas of the writers he uses and makes references to the modernity of their thinking, but due to the lack of a good definition, these parallels are not always evident. Perry's thesis challenges the contentions of Henry F. May's The End of Innocence: A Study of the First Years of Our Time, 1912-1917 (1964) and George Cotkin's Reluctant Modernism: American Thought and Culture, 1880-1900 (Macmillan, 1992). It is designed for specialists in the field, scholars, and informed readers.- Richard Hedlund, Ashland Community Coll., Ky.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.