American geographics : U.S. national narratives and the representation of the non-European world, 1830-1865
This book is the first comprehensive study of antebellum depictions of the non-European world. Harvey proposes that U.S. cultural history cannot be fully understood without considering how Americans regarded tropical America, the Holy Land, Polynesia, and Africa.
Print Book, English, 2001
Stanford University Press, Stanford, Calif., 2001
Criticism, interpretation, etc
331 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780804740456, 9780804740463, 0804740453, 0804740461
46449157
Introduction: beyond manifest destiny: American studies, national identity, and other worlds 1. The world as pedagogical spectacle: antebellum geography textbooks 2. 'Precepts graven on every breast': Melville's Typee, Polynesia, and the forms of the law 3. Desire, transgression, and the Holy Land 4. The archaeological sublime of tropical America: Ephraim G. Squier and John L. Stephens 5. Outgrowing the boundaries of North America: Martin R. Delany, Africa, and the question of African-American agency Conclusion: the world archive and the national canon of memory Notes Index.