America's jubilee
By: Andrew Burstein.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: A.A. Knopf
Published: 2001
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 361
Subjects: United States. -- Anniversaries, etc.; Eighteen twenty-six, A.D.; United States -- Anniversaries, etc.
Description: "On July 4, 1826, the United States celebrated its fiftieth birthday with parades and speeches across the country. But what ultimately sanctified the national jubilee in the minds of the celebrants was an extraordinary coincidence: the nearly simultaneous deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the last pillars of the original republic, already venerated as legends in their own time. It was a watershed in the nation's history, a bright moment when the successors to the Revolutionary dream examined their own lives as they took inspiration from and found nostalgia in the accomplishments of the founders." "In this book, the distinguished historian Andrew Burstein explores what it was to be an American in 1826. Drawing on private diaries and letters, daily newspapers, and long-buried publications, he shows us the personal lives behind the pageantry and reveals an acutely self-conscious nation - anxiously optimistic about its future, eager to romanticize the Revolutionary past." "In this portrait of the United States in its jubilee year, Burstein shows how 1826 marked an unforgettable time in the republic's history, when a generation embraced the legacy of its predecessors and sought to enlarge its role in America's story."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.