Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Sentimental Democracy

Sentimental Democracy

Burstein, Andrew

Paperback

General Political ScienceGeneral World HistoryRevolutionary Period (1775-1800)

Publisher Price: $33.00

ISBN10: 0809085364
ISBN13: 9780809085361
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Published: May 24 2000
Pages: 432
Weight: 1.16
Height: 1.14 Width: 5.57 Depth: 8.70
Language: English

The provocative interpretation of American political rhetoric

Americans like to use words of sentiment and sympathy, passion and power, to explain their democracy. In a provocative new work, Andrew Burstein examines the metaphorically rich language which Americans developed to express their guiding principle: that the New World would improve upon the Old. In journals, letters, speeches, and books, an impassioned rhetoric of feeling set the tone for American patriotism.

Burstein shows how the eighteenth century culture of sensibility encouraged optimism about a global society: the new nation would succeed. Americans believed, as much by sublime feeling as by intellectual achievement or political liberty. As they grew more self-confident, this pacific ideal acquired teeth: noble Washington and humane Jefferson yielded to boisterous Jackson, and the language of gentle feeling to the force of Manifest Destiny. Yet Americans never stopped celebrating what they believed was their innate impulse to do good.

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