The Nation's Nature: How Continental Presumptions Gave Rise to the United States of America (2011)
Drake, James David (Author)
University of Virginia Press
Physical Details: xii + 402 pp.; ill.; maps; bibl.; index
Language: English
In one of Common Sense's most ringing phrases, Thomas Paine declared it "absurd" for "a continent to be perpetually governed by an island." Such powerful words, coupled with powerful ideas, helped spur the United States to independence. In The Nation's Nature, James D. Drake examines how a relatively small number of inhabitants of the Americas, huddled along North America's east coast, came to mentally appropriate the entire continent and to think of their nation as America. Drake demonstrates how British North American colonists' participation in scientific debates and imperial contests shaped their notions of global geography. These ideas, in turn, solidified American nationalism, spurred a revolution, and shaped the ratification of the Constitution. Winner of the Walker Cowen Memorial Prize for an outstanding work of scholarship in eighteenth--century studies
...MoreDescription On “how British North American colonists' participation in scientific debates and imperial contests shaped their notions of global geography.” (from the publisher)
Review Pawley, Emily (2013) Review of "The Nation's Nature: How Continental Presumptions Gave Rise to the United States of America". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 161-162).
Review Wood, Bradford J. (2012) Review of "The Nation's Nature: How Continental Presumptions Gave Rise to the United States of America". American Historical Review (pp. 1588-1588).
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