Unbecoming British: How Revolutionary America Became a Postcolonial Nation
"Novel and engagingELIt emphasizes the ambivalent relationship of Americans toward Britain and their continued dependence upon Britain.Unbecoming Britishis written without jargon, making it very suitable both for class adoption and interested lay readers." --Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy,AmericanHistorical Review"Yokota's far-reaching reconsideration of the raw materials Americans proffered global markets, including the knowledge economy, offers a fresh perspective that should alter the questions authors in her wake ask about transatlantic resonance and implications of objects in their own fields of vision." --William and Mary Quarterly"Unbecoming Britishis an excellent addition to the important research on collective American identity. In this interdisciplinary transatlantic study, Kariann Akemi Yokota carefully examines how Americans transformed from a colonial British identity to an independent American identity." --Journal ofAmerican History"In her extensively researched and well-written book that will inspire, inform, and even entertain scholars across disciplines, Yokota breaks new ground by applying perspectives derived from postcolonial thought. Highly recommended." --CHOICE"An important and sensitive study of the efforts of postcolonial Americans in the decades immediately following independence to become a cultivated and respectable nation. Kariann Yokota imaginatively uses maps, geographies, botanical studies, British consumer goods, and other particulars to document the arduous struggles of a people who so recently thought of themselves as British to become truly independent.  It's an extraordinary work of cultural history."-Gordon S. Wood, author ofEmpire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815"This entrancing meditation on post-Revolutionary America's pursuit of cultural independence examines the perplexities of cutting loose from the nation that for two centuries had set the standards of civilization for the colonies. Unbecoming British traces this struggle through published geographies, imports of genteel goods, the China trade, natural history and medicine, and the creation of racial identity. There is no more far-reaching or penetrating survey of post-colonial American nationalism than this."-Richard Bushman, author ofThe Refinement of America:  Persons, Houses,Cities"Convincing, thought-provoking, and tremendously original,Unbecoming Britishcaptures exquisitely the ambivalence of the post-revolutionary United States. An exquisite book-a landmark work that defines an area of inquiry, and even a cultural formation, that was right under our noses if only we had noticed. It does what the best works of cultural history do best: suddenly so many episodes, persons, artifacts, and expressions seem more interesting, and comprehensible."-David Waldstreicher, Temple University"Remarkably learned across disciplines and continents, this boldly argued study lets us see the post-revolutionary United States anew. Struggling to make and have things the world would not ridicule, and seeking to purchase civilization even during moments of nationalist fervor, the Founding Fathers shopped for approval in China, Scotland, France, Germany, and, with considerable pathos, in London. Yokota delivers brilliantly on the promises of transnational history."-David Roediger,How Race Survived U.S. History"Unbecoming British is an excellent addition to the important research on collective American identity."Journal of American History