Tuesday, December 1, 2009
April 23: "Toward an American Culture"
If one existed or was steadily evolving during the early republic, what elements help define an emerging American culture in the early decades of the 19th century? According to Widmer and Lewis respectively, how did the political ideology of democracy and sports like baseball contribute to an American culture?
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The creation of an American culture that was not necessarily attached to a Nationalistic culture is explored in chapter fourteen of the reader. Source one represents some American’s efforts to define American culture through shared American struggles. Although the poem by Timothy Dwight dramatizes an Indian/Puritan conflict which took place in seventeenth century Massachusetts, without a doubt Americans throughout the country could identify with their own region’s Native American concerns. The poem features lines which include overly racist anti-Indian rhetoric of the day such as, “Transform’d the savage to the meekly child.” Thus, Dwight was able to partially define American culture by illustrating what it was not. The second source is perhaps the greatest nationalistic iconography in American to this day. As the introduction mentions, many of John Trumbull’s paints are still hanging in the National Galleries in Washington D.C., the particular painting shown here is also on the back of the $2 dollar bill. Crafting American culture in this period also meant crafting a frontiersman image and Davy Crockett is often remembered even in the present day as an iconic figure of that image. In source three, a bear hunt allegedly written by Crockett about his own experience is provided. Crockett’s self-reliance and brutish image is intentionally overplayed in the work. The Crockett narrative contrasts nicely with the proceeding source written by the leading American intellectual of the era Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson’s “American Scholar” speech delivered to the 1837 Harvard graduating class is seen by scholar to the present day as “a declaration of American intellectual independence,” as Edward L. Widmer’s essay points out. Emerson prompts the abilities of the individual over the society, perhaps even opposed to the corrupting or “lowering” influences of society. There can be said that embedded within Emerson’s philosophy and Crockett’s narrative there is a commonality of individual self-reliance and ability that seems to permeate so much of the era’s thought in the United States. The next source presents a cover of the first children’s magazine in the country. Although Lydia Maria Child was a noted reformer and abolitionist, it is quite telling that she addresses her publication in part to the “frugal housewife,” perhaps conforming to the “cult of domesticity” rhetoric. Source six is intimately linked with Robert M. Lewis’ essay at the conclusion of the chapter. The Knickerbocker Base-Ball Club’s codification of rules illustrates a somewhat different game than fans today maybe familiar with. Although many of the rules are the same, the terminology is far different than what today’s Major League Baseball would consider permissible. Many modern day baseball managers will be aggrieved to know that even in the 1845 manifestation of the game, “all disputes and differences relative to the game, to be decided by the umpire, from which there is no appeal.”
ReplyDeleteEdward L. Widmer’s essay links magazines, intellectuals, and party organizations to the development of American’s culture in the Early Republic. Widmer’s case study of The United States Magazine and Democratic Review illustrates that leading politicians, scholars, and newsmen collaborated to further partisan viewpoints in the press. Lastly, the British scholar Robert M. Lewis explores the relationship between the development of baseball as “American’s nation game” and the influence of the British sport of cricket in New York City. It was not until the 1850s that the phenomenon of “American Identity” would sweep the country, a development in popular culture that elevated baseball and doomed cricket.
The emergent “American” culture was a mixture of common experiences and more regional or perhaps class based realities amongst Americans. The most immediate and obvious example of these common experiences are the racist and triumphal lines in the poem authored by Timothy Dwight recalling (dramatizing?) the conflict with Pequot Indians. I think that, given all we have read and learned, it is virtually undeniable that expansion and Indian removal are intricate elements of American culture. Indeed it seems that given the circulation of the Democratic Review expansion and indeed the splendid ideals Americans associated with democracy (liberty, self-sufficiency, economic growth) were part and parcel.
ReplyDeleteGiven this link, it is equally fitting that John Trumbull’s painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence became a major hallmark of American culture. Sectional, economic, racial, and religious tensions were alive and thriving amongst Americans but few things united Americans like their belief in the efficacy of the Republic and self-government. With few symbols to flock to and rally around Americans readily embraced this impression of great Americans really beginning the history of the United States. For people sensitive to criticisms about their cultural inferiority and relative lack of accomplishment, the establishment of independence was a huge cultural achievement all could rally around.
Where America was going and what it had been through were not in dispute, but how it would get there was in dispute, then as now. Emerson envisaged the ideal “American scholar”, one pursuing European-esque cultural pursuits in order to equal and surpass them on their terms. Individual initiative, a prominent and central feature of America emanating from political empowerment, would enable America to beat Europe at its own game.
Frontier Americans like Davy Crockett saw a less traditional path towards American primacy, in what we would today term rugged individualism. The idea that “manliness”, individual feats of strength and self-reliance in nature, were emphasized as the qualities that would make America grand and what made a great man. These contrasted greatly with the scholarly focus on arts and literature to construct an American identity, and likely reflected the vast gulf between New England values and frontier realities.
The baseball essay also highlights the fact that American culture came to mean what America wasn’t almost as much as what it was. Few Americans would recognize (or could even interpret) the rules laid out in the Knicerbocker, but the argument that American popular culture like baseball drew heavily on cricket is well made. It makes sense as well, as the sports are clearly similar and America was a former British colony packed with British immigrants. The emergence of baseball as America’s sport only emerged during the nationalist drive to create an American culture, in 1845. Cricket, a British sport, simply would not be appropriate as the American pass time, and in truly American fashion Americans took inspiration from foreign ideas and made them their own with unique enhancements. America may have been a nation packed full of European immigrants, but they sought to confirm to all that they were anything but Europeans.
American culture was not defined in one single moment or by a single train of thought. American culture was founded upon many different ideologies, as is true to this day. Culture was born from the regional level of different territories and eventually spread nationally, meshing with others from across the land. Racism often brought people together to form a quasi “culture” under the notion that if one looked like you then they were “on the bus.” Document 1 illustrates this in the poetic prose of Timothy Dwight who describes the Pequot Indians as “savages” which could be transformed into meekly children. This sense of superiority provided a common ground for whites in the same fashion that racism towards blacks did, thus sparking the birth of a culture. Another aspect of American culture was that of the frontiersman such as Davy Crockett who to this day is still idolized in books and popular outdoor culture. Crockett and his fellow frontiersmen laid the foundation of a self-sustaining culture through their hunting and farming. This cog in the wheel of American culture soon fell out however with the rise of industrialization and urban capitalism. You can’t leave out the intellects when discussing the formation of the American culture; after all we are still so pompous to this day to believe we are the crème de la crème. Emerson addresses the “American Scholar” in document 4 stating, “Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close.” America had now defeated the motherland in two epic battles and felt that it was their turn to have their place in the sun, a spot we have yet to relinquish. The last aspect of American culture I wish to address was that the lot of our women. These women were brought up knowing one thing, that they would not have a voice outside the home. The cult of domesticity was so engraved in their minds that it was accepted as a given. Pamphlets such as the one in Document 5 were issued to provide mothers with childbearing advice and aid in the creation of a middle class culture.
ReplyDeleteWidmer studies the development of the Democratic Review of O’Sullivan and Langtree in conjunction with the development of an American culture. The Review is an attempt to give to Americans a different point of view than that of the Whig Party. Widmer claims that Democracy was the engine that drove both O’Sullivan and his magazine. With the progress of the magazine O’Sullivan claimed that America’s cultural scope had been widened and what was once a narrow sphere became vast. Lewis explores the development of baseball with that of an American identity. Americans were in dire need of a distinctly American sport, rather than the English cricket they found this in the newly developed game of baseball. It is said that baseball was “forged in the fire of the Civil War and was uniquely American. It was a reflection of national character, ‘democratic and combative’, symbolizing the American spirit.”
American intellectuals during the early republic were searching for a unique culture that would bring Americans together and forge an identity that was not European. Escaping the European origins of the vast majority of the free population was nearly impossible, but building off of it was not. Document 1 is Timothy Dwight’s narrative poem describing an American historical event more than one hundred years before he had written it. While I had a hard time interpreting its inclusion in the chapter, after finishing the section I believe it to be there to evidence the beginnings of American literature that describes a unique American event that people of Dwight’s region should be proud of. Pride in region and patriotism to the nation were the basis for the unique American culture. Basing art, music, and writing off of your people’s own experiences is a definition of culture which I have always been taught to be true. The next document is Trumbull’s painting of the nation’s founding, another example of the nationalist tendencies of early American intellectuals. Davy Crockett’s piece serves as representation of the masculinity of the West and the frontier culture, and the later demand for more western descriptions and in the twentieth century, stereotypical western movies, and finally details the inception of the masculine American West culture and its appeal to Americans from all corners of the continent. I think the most informative document on the development of American culture is Emerson’s and is calling on American intellectuals to steer away from the Europeans and begin to rival Old World culture. He seemed concerned that not enough of Americans were THINKING (or we would call it now thinking critically). Emerson had a great quote midway through his essay “In the right state, he is, Man Thinking, In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men’s thinking.” (That applies as much to people in Emerson’s time as it does in 2010.) Reading through the rest, it becomes obvious that he is a transcendentalist which was the first major and most important intellectual movement of the mid-early republic. In what would become a counter-culture to the new age of machinery and mass-production, transcendentalism was American through and through. By the 1830s, the nation had a culture. However, it was not rivaling that of Europe’s yet, it was the beginning of an identity that would build more on itself for the next two centuries leading us now to a completely unique nation, for better or worse.
ReplyDeleteThe essays I felt were harder in this section to relate back to the primary documents. Widmer talks about the development of a nation newspaper that united people from all corners of the nation to a uniform cause. With the development of fully recognized national political parties in the 1820s and 1830s, I believe this to be something else that is uniquely American. Nowhere else in the world was a political system like the one in the U.S. in existence. That is the brief fact I took away from the essay on the Democratic Review. Lewis uses baseball as a great example of how the development of baseball was a sample of how the culture shift from European to American worked. People in urban areas in the North (mainly New York City) were interested in what to do with their leisure time. Manly sports had been in existence, many carried to the New World from the civilized English gentry. Cricket was a prime example of such a sport. New York papers proclaimed that cricket was the sport that would catch hold and become a national sport (during the 1830 and 1840s). However, baseball evolved from cricket to become the nation’s national sport by the late 1860s. It was an obvious spin-off of the English cricket, but so was most of the culture of the United States. It was English old world in heritage, but uniquely American in its experiences.
ReplyDeleteAmerican culture in the early American republic seems a bit weak when compared to European culture. And if it’s not weak, it might be perceived simply as a poorer version of European culture. Perhaps that is entirely natural given the European decent of the majority of Americans. However, there were tremendous differences that made American culture much different. Alexis de Tocqueville noticed something a bit odd upon his visit to the early American republic. He particularly noticed the influence of politics and the far reaching arms of representative democracy. Additionally, African culture is incredibly influential upon an American culture. The slaves of the early republic were still Americans and what they brought with them and passed down through generations is certainly a culture almost completely absent from Europe. The back country is possibly the most significant contributor to a uniquely American culture. The food, music, religion, entertainment and day-to-day lives of Americans on the frontier could not and would not be found anywhere in Europe. As American politics developed to include these areas and residents so too did American culture. What would have been conceived of as entirely crude and too frontier during the days of the Revolution becomes very popular and contributes greatly to a true American cultural identity. Finally, within the context of intellectuals and art and literature, Cooper’s Hawkeye from The Last of the Mohicans is a purely American cultural archetype. The transcendentalists expanded romantic notions from Europe to believe firmly in the existence of God in every aspect of nature, and that remains consistent with the fiercely independent nature of Americans and American intellectual development. In terms of Art, American liberty and other liberal, semi radical, ideas flow in ways that was not present in Europe.
ReplyDeleteAmerican political ideology is hugely important to contributing to an American culture. Just as de Toqueville noticed, American politics were entertainment to a majority of people. The public read newspapers and transported information quickly. The aforementioned vast independent streak made Americans very interested in what was or was not transpiring in the political sphere and how that would or would not affect their lives. This was not the case in Europe. Although there were representative democracies and constitutional monarchies all over the European continent in the 19th century, the common effect of democracy was no where near as powerful as in America, and the entertainment factor was certainly not there. Jackson’s inaugural party indicates greatly how significant politics were to the American culture. The masses who swarmed the White House for Jackson’s reception were there because they were aware of what was going on and were self interested in becoming a part of it. That is profoundly American and a tremendous example of her early republican culture.
Robert Lewis, a British historian, evaluates the effect of baseball upon the American cultural identity. Even though baseball was significant in the antebellum years and would become even more significant after the Civil War, Lewis argues that the game barrows extensively from cricket and therefore hearkens clearly to that British game. At the extent to which the game isn’t squarely “American” perhaps the culture that is derived from that game is not squarely “American” either.
Prior to the early decades of the nineteenth century and into the later years of the nineteenth century American culture no longer borrowed many of the traditions and cultural aspects from Great Britain and Europe it once had in the first decades of the United States of America. The emerging sense of American nationalism and patriotism was no doubt the most important aspect of the expanding and creating an American culture. In Timothy Dwight’s 1794 poem, “The Destruction of the Pequods” Dwight takes a completely American idea of Indians and the relationship white Americans had with Indians and creates a poem. This poem is completely American because it’s subject does not involve anything outside of the continent or any subject matter from Europe. The abolishment of writing and commenting on things that were happening over in Europe and Great Britain and rather concentrating on purely American conflicts, ideologies, and aspects of society. This clearly helped create an American culture that rapidly grew in the few decades into the eighteen hundreds. Painter John Trumbull continues this ideology of creating purely American art by depicting the nation’s founding and signing of the Declaration of Independence in an 1820 painting. Here Trumbull pulls form the nationalistic viewpoint of American society and paints something that represents the foundation of America.
ReplyDeleteNature and the natural environment played an enormous role in the new definition of American culture that emerged in the early nineteenth century. Transcendentalism, an American based philosophical movements headed by Emerson was uniquely American and equally respected on the American continent as so in Europe to culturally. In his address the “American Scholar” Emerson defines how it is extremely important for us as Americans to create our own cultural identity separate from Europe’s. He writes, “We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe. The spirit of American freeman is suspected to be timid, imitative, tame….We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds.” Here Emerson preaches the importance for Americans to continue to push to create their own art, literature, popular culture, and overall culture and so without mocking or imitating European thoughts and ideals.
A completely unique American cultural development was our national pastime, baseball. In document 6, “The Knickerbocker Base-Ball Club Codifies the Game’s Rules, 1845” the game of baseball had its first written rules and clearly this game flourished over the years. Sport, a culturally aspect to society, and baseball became an American tradition and identity adopted all across the world. This is a distinctly American idea that was born and America and adopted all across the globe, this is what Emerson is taking about by creating a distinct American culture in all aspects of life.
Historian Edward L. Widmer argues in his essay “A Democratic Culture?” argues that the nationalism was the main reason the new emerging American culture by 1837 rapidly gained speed and substance in art, literature, and other scholarly ventures. New York City was the Mecca of American culture due to the large urban population, plethora of news publications, theaters, and universities. In the second essay, British historian Robert M. Lewis argues that the American pastime of baseball was not really an American pastime but rather simply another imitation the Americans took from the British and the game of cricket and tried to coin it a part of their own unique American culture.
As the nation was beginning and in its early years of life it had a culture, but that culture was based on what other countries and major cities of the world were doing. It needed a starting point to base its culture on and it would grow from there, quickly becoming the looked at compared to the on-looker. From politics with the beginnings of a multiple party system, to are own viewpoint of art and music. America made the image of the wilderness in to a beauty instead of frowned upon like across the ocean. In the arts people would begin writing about experiences and the lives of the unknown Indians. How many of these people such as Sidney Smith could relate to such adventurous tales as Davy Crockett and his hunt of a 600 pound bear, culture was improving on a daily basis in America and the world would soon bear witness. After reading the first essay by Widmer it really painted a picture that the Democratic party during this time really started to grow when it came to literature and fine arts in the first half of the 18th century. I really liked the part about O’Sullivan talking about American people or “the unencumbered people” would start their own idea of culture out of nothing, a purely American culture that would be unrivaled. There is no question that baseball began as a big city sport with it bringing a break from a the norm a field of grass for men to play on like when they were little. Who would of seen this sport expand even past the cities and in to all of the countries heart. Having played baseball my whole life I loved the excerpt from page 443 linking baseball to the culture of the workplace I had never thought of it that way before “ The game rewarded speed skill and efficiency, scientific study and precision self discipline and obedience to regulations.” The game groomed young men and prepared them for what was to come with the rise of capitalism. America was able to take a English game and improve upon it so greatly as to make it our past time. Even as baseball gained popularity in the states America still always kept an eye on England when it came to team sports. In Lewis’s essay he drew out the story of how baseball became what it was today how it became manlier learning from cricket rules and laws to improve itself and become better than the sport it had emerged from. I never realized until after reading this essay that when it pertained to sports America always had an eye on what England was doing until after the Civil war when a country united fully now needed something to grasp on to to unite the country once more and why not do that through sport and culture. America needed to make its own path and make its own voice they really seemed to do that culturally and become the leader in culture and sport after the civil war
ReplyDeleteAmerican culture in the early decades of the 19th century seems like a whirlwind of change is taking place to gradually build up to today’s modern society. This change that helped define American culture included a wide array of events and movements. The feminist movement sprang out of the second great awakening-giving rise to a bigger abolitionist movement. The south was becoming more and more resistant to change paving the path for the civil war. The news papers along with art and a new museum culture was beginning to rise and impact society. People were growing away from rural life and becoming involved with their societies around them. America was growing not only culturally but also by land mass also. America was growing and changing in every way it could. With the Civil War society changed even more. It was now necessary to figure out how to be the UNITED states instead of being clearly divided by the North and south. With people like Davy Crockett emerging into society it gave American culture a new stereotype of the average man. In literature, authors such as Emerson were creating a new class of American citizens who were educating themselves in “proper” literature and the language of poetry. The “American Scholar” was emerging with these changes taking place. Widmer discussed the political ideology of democracy that was taking place in the mid eighteen hundreds. With the end of the Jacksonian error and the new democrat Martin Van Buren becoming president and new type of politics that would define America began to emerge. A major influence was a monthly magazine called “The United States Magazine and Democratic Review.” Created by John Louis O’Sullivan with the help of Van Buren, it would sweep through America influencing the political culture. It gave regular Americans voices and allowed our modern day political culture to begin to form. It created excitement through America about the changes taking place and also helped people get involves. Lewis argues that baseball was not actually a huge American sport that influenced American culture in this time period. He says that it was not till the late eighteen hundreds with the dissipation of cricket did baseball really begin to capture Americans hearts and change culture. Sports like Horse racing and gymnastics did help Americans to get involved and culture to focus more on entertainment and fun. I still believe though that these “Knickerbockers” did have an effect on American culture in the eighteen hundreds. Baseball most definitely did begin to bring people together later in the century. It created a sense of team and brotherhood that had not been around before. Somehow it changed from a child’s game into an all American sport for people of every age to partake in. These eighteen hundred changes caused the shaping of our American culture, as it is today to begin to form. In some ways things are really not much different then the 19th century new ideas. American culture was formed out of these events and is very much the same in some ways today.
ReplyDeleteWidmer and Lewis give two examples of how culture spread through the people of the mid 19th century. Stemming from the new seen election process started from the election of 1828 we now see a rising tide of individuals seeking their voice to be heard by the nation. Widmer highlights the importance of competing media at the time, and O'Sullivan giving an example of the birth of American mainstream politics. What O'Sullivan and Langtree did was provide an outlet for those whose "intellectual" voice was not competing with the literature of the Whigs. Political campaigns as well as reform movements, political ideologies, religious convictions, and other worries and concerns for public attention were drawn to the Democratic Review. Widmer expresses Van Buren's reliance to this literature, he had no voice without it as the people were still shocked from the economic panic. Although Widmer concentrates much on the untold character of O'Sullivan, which is important in understanding who was editing and producing this literature, but the effects it had on the public is much more important. His social flexibility allowed for a vast range of competing ideas to see publishing, but not without some slant, like any editor would have. I see this literary movement has having a gigantic impact on society, maybe not directly at the exact moments of publishing, but the sustaining of ideas through mass production of literature and its potential to last and reach people. Lewis's essay on the beginnings of baseball is interesting. I think its very necessary to highlight the beginnings of sport as a major American cultural fad. Which has only increased exponentially. Providing heroes, through sports, allows people to become one like the Romans. This use of glorifying sports has been used for centuries. The reestablishment of the Olympic games were used to promote nationalistic heroes. This is exactly the same only on a national level of competition and not global. Look at where sports have got us today, further into the cave. Not to mention this breeds competition mentality. This all plays into rising capitalism. Sports are great, I think there can be a lot of harm caring too much for entertainment though. But there is no doubt it had tremendous influence. People were able to mingle, discuss, drink, and find a common bond. Maybe not in the game, but the spirit of friendly competition. We can all see today how the rise of entertainment and media can drown the mind. We live in an era where this is changing our culture just as it changed the people of the mid 19th century. What was different were the messages being broadcast to the public. One side of people were pulling for this new way of living, the aristocrats were not ready for this change. Jacksonians taking a step into the "intellectual realm" of the Whigs was an incredible step, but one that seems inevitable if these people hoped to see any of their ideas shared throughout the nation.
ReplyDeleteAn “American” culture had started to evolve before the dawn of the nineteenth century but it was not clearly defined. Americans before and during the early republic had already established an American culture but no one had captured it and put it on paper. American artists and writers in the early nineteenth century were still following European influences. But once America had established itself and felt secure, Americans began to look back on what they and their ancestors had accomplished and were proud. They were proud of their ancestors that had defied the odds and secured a nation for themselves. Timothy Dwight’s “The Destruction of the Pequods” illustrates two of the cornerstones of American culture. 1. That America was divinely blessed. Many Americans believed that God must have been on their side because the early settlers were able to defeat the Indians, starvation, and disease and Americans, “farmers with pitchforks,” had secured their independence from Brittan which had the best military on earth at that time. 2. That Americans were gangsters and no problem was too big; “Transform’d the savage to the meekly child.” John Trumbull’s painting of the presentation of the Declaration of Independence also showed a part of the American culture. Trumbull was trying to capture the unity of Americans and that all American come together in difficult and trying times. The painting is historically inaccurate because everyone was not in the same room at the presentation and signing of the Declaration. But Trumbull wanted to paint a picture that showed the unity of America. Davy Crockett Hunts a Bear shows the culture of the frontiersman and how they are proud of being able to conquer nature. It is interesting that the he mentioned the dream fighting the big black guy and how it foreshadowed his fight with the bear. I may be reading too much into it but it made me think that he thought of black people as more animal than man. Emerson’s “American Scholar” talks about the individualism in American culture. Everyone is worried about themselves and only themselves. It was interesting that he talked about the limitations people placed on themselves within their professions. The shoe maker is a shoe maker and only thinks about shoes and the artist is an artist and only thinks about art. Emerson also wanted to help create an American culture by telling people to stop focusing on English literature and Greek art and stop worrying about criticism and create something uniquely American. The rules for the baseball speak for themselves because baseball is America and America is baseball. I thought Widmer brought up a very good point about Emerson’s magazine being called the “Democratic Review” because it showed another part of American culture; “They wanted their magazine to be definitively ‘American’ and ‘Democratic,’ and soon it was known across the land as the Democratic Review (p.433).” In the American culture when someone thinks of America they will most likely also think of democracy. Baseball, who in America does not like baseball? Baseball became one of the cornerstones of American culture because it was created by Americans. It was one thing that was uniquely American.
ReplyDeleteAmerican culture in the earlier part of the nineteenth-century relied on interpretations of the surroundings and a reliance on the nations roots. American culture was formed from a variety of factors. The ever present frontier mentality that possessed many to uproot and move west created a self sufficiency that Ralph Waldo Emerson mentioned in his “American Scholar” work. This self-sufficiency was bred out of need. Out in the wilderness, far from any industrialization hardened American resolve and cemented American exceptionality. Davy Crockett’s reminiscing of his quest to kill a black bear is just one example of the frontiersman attitude the nation’s citizens possessed. In a day where a man could leave his home and take a short trek to the nearby woods, Crockett signified a time where there existed no bounds for American exploits.
ReplyDeleteThe nation’s founding, specifically the struggles for independence and the wars with the Native Americans also helped to shape American culture. Fighting Indians and defeating the British were two mainstays of American life for over forty years after the nation’s independence. Not surprisingly, Americans would come to identify themselves through these struggles. This fight for independence versus the mother country and the later fight to use the lands they had won, bound American culture in struggle and triumph, instilling in Americans a sense of purpose and duty. This triumph against the world’s most powerful empire and the defeat of the Native American peoples aggrandized American notions of exceptionalism and purpose.
For Widmer, American culture and political heritage were intimately intertwined. As Widmer saw it, the “American political experiment” was the initial push for a worldwide revolution that would spread and encompass all forms of expression. Democratic principles instilled in the heart of the nation’s founding, such as equality and unalienable rights, was instilled in the Democratic Review and the founding editor John Louis O’Sullivan. This refinement and expansion of American democratic principles in the form of a national and popular publication would create a unique American culture centered around self-sufficient and one that focused on the nation’s political roots.
The sport of baseball according to Robert Lewis, was a direct mirror of American attitudes and values. Lewis asserted that “the ball park was an expression of nineteenth-century romantic pastoralism and arcadian bliss, and offered a soothing balm for the ills of an anonymous, alienating, and vicious environment.” The game rewarded physical prowess, skill, efficiency, teamwork, competition, and cooperation. These were all mirrors of what American’s valued in the earliest days of our republic. The game also embraced the market revolution and capitalism that was permeating the nation. Although Lewis argues the American pastime of baseball was largely influenced by the British sport of cricket, I believe the significance is misinterpreted. Although American baseball undoubtedly has its roots in the British version of the game, Americans created their own version of the game to represent themselves. They created a cultural expression of the game that represented the frontiersman attitude of the time while also enshrining republican attitudes of teamwork and community.
American culture had been steadily evolving since America gained independence. For many years following independence Americans look backed to Europe for cultural guidance, but the rise of many movements that championed the individual, like the second Great Awakening, lead many Americans to begin creating a culture of their own. The rise of new romantic heroes like Daniel Boone and Andrew Jackson help to define Americans as rugged individuals that had a lot in common with common Americans. This rugged individual theme can be seen in document 3 describing how a rugged frontiersman hunts a dangerous animal. In forging this new culture American writers sought to memorialize the past and show the triumphs of historical Americans. This celebration of American history can be seen in documents 1 and 2 where an artist and a writer are celebrating the great deeds of historical Americans. Looking back fondly on the past seems to still be a favorite of artists and writers in modern day America.
ReplyDeleteEdward L Widmer is his article A Democratic Culture asserts that the majority of these artists and writers that were part of the “American Renaissance” associated themselves with the Democratic Party. This is a fair assumption since the party of Jackson was the Democratic Party. These men where bought together by the politics of expansion, and the rise of American nationalism associated with that expansion. These likeminded intellectuals even founded a journal whose goal was to be “American” and “Democratic.” The Democratic Review as it came to be called was the mouthpiece for the Democratic Party and this new American nationalism associated with the arts. This publication arose because intellectuals thought that “there was nothing in the way of a respectable national magazine with Jacksonian leanings.” This rising class of American intellectuals used the Democratic Review to influence American culture on a partisan level.
Robert M Lewis’s piece Organized Baseball and American Culture argues that the truly “American” pastime of baseball was in fact highly influenced by the British game of cricket. He believes that this rise of American culture and nationalism helped firmly entrench baseball as America’s pastime. Lewis believes that cricket “served as a catalyst for baseball’s transformation into a modern team sport.” Lewis cites the formation of the Knickerbockers as being informed by the organization of a cricket club, but he believes the rise in an American culture signaled the end of cricket in the United States. He believes that baseball “was a true reflection of the national character, ‘democratic and combative’ a blend of brain and brawn which symbolized the American spirit. It could be argued that the main impetus behind this new national character and culture was supported by the presidency of Andrew Jackson. He claimed to be democratic and he certainly was combative, and the fascination with him may have helped to engrain some of his character traits in the American psyche. From the 1850’s on Americans ceased to look to Europe for guidance and helped to forge a new truly American culture founded on the idea of democracy.
Up until the start of American culture, no one would read an American book poem or see an American produced play or notice an American made art piece. However America would look west for insight on art and literature. What could really define American culture? Was it the struggling yeoman farmer who is doing well to just be getting by or is it the rich elite who utilize human beings to accumulate personal wealth and power? All of these would play a key factor into shaping the American culture, one that still stands among the rest of the world as quite unique. We can account our culture by its ideologies, religious views, personal triumph and defeat. The first of the primary documents is by Rev. Timothy Dwight. This poem represents the struggles in land between the puritans of New England and the Indians. He explains of the evil Indians murdering at will but the puritans will not back down. The stereotypical thought is that Americans will not back down from anything; they will fight off anyone who stands in their way. Because of poems like Dwight’s, the nation’s culture can be represented as fierce and brave. In document 2, John Trumbull portrays the founding of our nation government. Every time I think of the declaration of independence this visual aid always comes to mind because it has be driven into our head as to what that looked like. Most young American boys have heard of Davy Crockett. This back wooded outdoors man is the poster boy for any young to go outside and play in the woods. I can always remember the TV best and how he would always have the skunk hat. Men like Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone represent Fred Turner’s thesis like no others. These men were hunter no for class sophistication or pleasure, these men did it to survive and it represents that good ole’ American “want to.” In document four, Ralph Waldo Emerson addresses the “American Scholar” to not in one single man. “Man is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he is all. He goes on by saying that America has been victorious against the motherland not once but twice and that a nation of men spirited by the divine soul will drive our nation forward. Lydia Maria was able to found the nation’s first children’s magazine, “The Juvenile Miscellany.” For a nation of men to think that women were completely inferior to men is extremely extraordinary for Lydia Maria. The last and final document was my favorite because it explained the rules of the first “Base-Ball” club. Interestingly, there are lot of the rules are still very similar. The forty-two paces between bags would be interestingly to see before a Major League Baseball game. Edward Widmer notes with the creation of “The United States Magazine and Democratic Review” marked a distinction in American culture. The name alone speaks for itself that it was going to be an American and Democratic magazine. Robert Lewis’s essay explores the creation and importance of our nation’s pastime, baseball. During the years before the civil war, baseball was virtually unheard of. Baseball soon took off into the mainstream of American and Lewis says that it was a game to be admired by all because it rewarded absolute precision. The evolution of baseball can define American culture at its best because it offers any young man a dream, the American dream.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Widmer and others, literature and the arts contributed greatly to the development of a distinctly American culture. Through paintings such as John Trumbull's famous depiction of the signing of the Declaration, Americans were reminded of their heritage and were able to feel a sense of pride in their history, short as it was. John Trumbull's status as a Revolutionary War veteran certainly gave his painting a more personal touch, and his depiction of the Founding Fathers as stately, respectable, and distinguished aided in the development of national pride. Not much has changed today - this painting still hangs in the gallery of the capitol in Washington. Emerson even encouraged Americans to gain their inspiration from the land they lived on instead of through their work, spurring them to fully experience "events, actions...that must be sung, that will sing themselves." More importantly, he encourages Americans not to look to the ancients and modern European leaders in art for their inspiration and instead look to their own "heart and soul" - nature. Additionally, a strong folk culture arose through the idolization of one of the most iconic Americans, Davy Crockett. He symbolized the rogue American spirit and the general assumption that Americans could conquer anything, as he proved when he dominated the bear. Finally, the impact of the development of the "national sport," baseball, cannot be overstated. As is natural of a country that sprang from another, American culture was heavily influenced by its parent nations in Europe. Thus, many cultural pastimes made their way into the new nation; however, as has always been true of Americans, the popular sport of cricket was altered slightly into a more Americanized version, what we know today to be baseball. As an Englishman, it's not altogether surprising that Lewis downplays the originality of the game of baseball. However, he does point out that the sport embodied many of the reform movements that were going on, particularly the instilling of the values of hard work and character, physical health and an obsession with keeping the body pure of sinful influences such as alcohol and unnecessary sex, and moral prowess. The development of baseball as an American sport can also be said to have led to the development of other distinctively American sports, such as American football, which not only takes its name from the largely European sport of "football" (again, Americans have changed it to "soccer,") but also derives many of its procedures from rugby, which is still very popular in the "mother country." Thus, the development of a distinctly American culture is an ongoing process; while it certainly was accelerated during the early republic, Americans still define themselves as unique and decidedly separate from their European counterparts in all aspects of life, including politics, music, art, film, and sports, which leads to a continually developing American identity.
ReplyDeleteUntil the early republic, all things “American” had been either loosely or largely based on Europe, using its former mother country as a model for Western civilization. As early as the nineteenth century, however, there became a new desire to create a uniquely American culture that stood apart from Europe’s tradition of culture. Ralph Waldo Emerson announced in an 1837 address to the graduates of Harvard College that, “Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close,” (Wilentz 427). Emerson, alongside other Americans, believed that the United States was ready to assert itself as its own cultural character as it had already done in the realms of politics and the military. Suddenly, the United States began defining its culture in terms of new American sports like baseball, American centered magazine publications, and the wild frontier stories of Davy Crockett, who represented a common, natural man, much like Andrew Jackson, living out in the open wilderness. Crockett recounted one of his adventures out on the frontier which led him on a bear hunt in 1834: “I took my tomahawk in one hand, and my big butcher-knife in the other, and run up within four or five paces of him, at which he let my dog go, and fixed his eyes on me. I got back in all sorts of a hurry, for I know’d if he got hold of me, he would hug me altogether too close for comfort,” (Wilentz 427). In the end, of course, Crockett came out victorious, having killed the bear and, in a sense, tamed the wilderness. Stories like these were exciting new ways to describe the lives of Americans who were still developing unmapped territory. While Europe’s day of developing its countryside was all but over, Americans were still engrossed in settling their land, making the West an emerging theme in American culture.
ReplyDeleteDemocratic magazines, like historian Edward L. Widmer’s example of John Louis O’Sullivan’s Democratic Review, also helped facilitate an American culture in the early republic: “[…T]he editor [O’Sullivan] saw the American political experiment as the beginning of a worldwide revolution that would soon spread to other domains of the mind. With proper tending, an entire intellectual system of great art, literature, and philosophy ought to spring from the same impulse that had declared all men created equal,” (Wilentz 434). Thus, O’Sullivan made it his mission to combine news and intellectual articles in his publication to evoke thoughtfulness and active participation from the general populace. Politics also made up a substantial portion of the articles’ messages: “For O’Sullivan, politics and culture were indissolubly linked, and his advocacy of Democratic authors went hand-in-hand with his support of the Van Buren administration,” (Wilentz 434). The American definition of democracy played out in the pages of the Democratic Review, which also made room for a variety of intellectual works of writing that soon began shaping readers minds and opinions.
Finally, sports, like they still do today, added to the cultural mix of nineteenth century America. Baseball, though inspired by Britain’s games of cricket, soon became the cornerstone of American sports. Robert M. Lewis writes that, “[…] as baseball clubs began to proliferate in the New York-Brooklyn metropolitan area, the Press proclaimed baseball the ‘national game,’” (Wilentz 449). Additionally, “In the same year the Spirit dismissed cricket as ‘an exotic…played chiefly by Englishmen, and it is regarded, even by American players, as an English game,” (Wilentz 449). Baseball had distanced itself from European sports and soon had a large following of fans and players playing in many United States cities, beginning with the Knickerbockers in New York City. America’s new pastime had found its place in a uniquely American culture.
Based on the primary sources presented in this section of the text, the American culture was focused on the strength of the American past and a strong, rugged individualism that permeates the conquering of the west legends today. The poem demonstrated in document one commemorates a struggle fought between Puritans and Indians a long time ago even for the poems standards. It places the Puritans, the future Americans, on a pedestal. It uses such violent, harsh language to describe the Native Americans and their tactics. The word savage is used several times to describe them. A slight foreshadowing to the attempted Canadian takeover during the War of 1812 can be seen, as it refers to Canadians as fiends. John Trumbull’s painting, as seen in document two, commemorates the signing of the declaration of Independence, one of the key moments in the young nation’s life. It seems plain enough, just showing the founding fathers beginning to gather around the table. Bother of the first two documents shows that the country is trying to revere their fledgling history. The excerpt from Daniel Boone’s autobiography in document three shows the individualist ideals that were beginning to become popularized. It seems like a self-glorifying tale of a man showing nature who is boss. Document five shows that the nation is allowing women to author literature within the budding culture, even though the citation “author of the girls own book” seems to be a bit condescending. The rules of baseball in document six represent the beginnings of American pastimes that would eventual drown American culture. The most influential document is Emerson’s “American Scholar” speech. It also shows an individualist mentality when it comes to their nation. They need to pull away from the old role models in Europe and create their own. This is an interesting claim, as Emerson does help create and popularize a whole new brand of American culture in the Transcendentalist movement.
ReplyDeleteWildmer’s piece primarily focuses on The Democratic Review and some other magazines. He describes how what started out as a means by Van Buren to promote the Democratic Party over the Whigs, time transformed it into a medium that represented all forms of culture and politics. The magazine interviewed both Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, bitter enemies in opposite parties. Though not “divorced from his politics”, editor John O’Sullivan both sides to the political story. Lewis chronicles the history and impact of early baseball. Even though I am not a avid fan of baseball, I found his essay rather interesting, as it is more relatable than many of the other essays read for these blog posts. The sport apparently symbolized the constraints of modern civilization, reinforced the timely and efficient culture of the work place, and functioned as an urban voluntary association that helped introduce men to other aspects of the American culture that they otherwise may have never known about (but all of which was still facets of white culture.) It was a game of the average man and was seen as a more manly exercise, unlike cricket. It eventually began to gain its own traditions and infrastructure, a behemoth in American entertainment. With its growth in popularity and size, it not only helped introduce people from different aspects of culture, but also became an integral part of it.
The emerging culture in America seems to have several faces to it. It can be seen in the sense of the rugged frontiersman like in the story of Davy Crockett. The Davy Crockett story empowers the sense of a man’s man during this time. He is hunting with his dogs in the forest for his food. It is the quintessential view of a rough and tough person similar to the phenomenon around Andrew Jackson. It’s a story that young boys can look up to and try to emulate. Another face is the song in the beginning which is that of conquest and piety for the people. It invokes on the spiritual side of America along with the conquering side like the Davy Crockett story. The artwork in document two contributes to the sense of pride within the American people. All of the people in the painting are portrayed as strong men with a sense of power and authority. These were the founders of our nation. Emerson also invokes a sense of religious zeal along with scholarly thought within America. It is also the beginning of the culture that the job shouldn’t be what you are but rather what you do. It is a warning almost. Document five shows the cult of domesticity that was being preached during this time period. In Edward Widmer’s essay, he portrays the culture through the works of O’Sullivan. He provides a look at how reviews or newspaper where help in contrast to one another. The different sides would have different newspapers. It is a separation between politic theories. The reviews tell and shape the views on the different parties. It harkens to today where the news is split between sides such as CNN and Fox News. Each journalism source has their side that they are on. There has to be a balance or a paper opposing the other paper, similar to the political party structure. Widmer also supplies that O’Sullivan pushed for the formation of the American culture. He wanted American letters along with American novels. He wanted the literature for the people that inspired them. Lewis in his essay provides the look that baseball has been a part of America culture since the Early Republic. He supplies that the game was developed due to the rise in industries in the urban centers. The game is similar to the factory skills of “speed, skill and efficiency.” Lewis makes the remarks that the game in the beginning was not that popular and then later in the Early Republic, it was viewed as more of a children’s game that was played like tag and blind man’s bluff. He supplies that team sports were not really defined at the time. Other sports like horse-racing were more popular. But slowly it gain rise and beat out cricket as the national sport. It became part of the American cultural experience.
ReplyDeleteIt is difficult to define what “American culture” was even during the early republic. Would American culture be the bustling town of Baltimore as described by Seth Rockman in Scraping By? Would it be the experience of a slave on a plantation in the Deep South? One could even make the argument to consider the experience of American Indians in terms of the culture of the United States. In my opinion, the culture of the early republic was more defined by overarching events that affected all members of society, even if they were in different ways. For example, the War of 1812 contributed to the psyche of American culture. It can be viewed as a war that forged a nation to grow up quickly and stand together against another onslaught of British troops. However, it is crucial to point out how events like the War of 1812 affected different portions of society differently. Whereas northern citizens could have been concerned with a military battle in their city or if their Northern neighbor Canada would be annexed, the Southern planter would have been significantly concerned with how the war was affecting the price of cotton in Europe and if trade could continue. The readings, as well as this week’s lectures, concerned themselves primarily with the affect that westward movement had on American culture. As we could discern from the Manifest Destiny picture, Americans took this expansion on with religious fervor, believing that God in fact wanted them to explore the frontier. Timothy Dwight’s poem connected the swelling of pride felt by Americans during this time period toward their country, and even their region. Because of the rapid string of successes experience by the young country in such a rapid period of time, it is easy to understand how these citizens felt a since of promise and opportunity in the West and in the growing Industrial Revolution. Also because land was so extensive, the feeling of this success being continued contributed to the culture of America.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Emerson’s piece a lot during this weeks reading. His emphasis on what the country was thinking was great social commentary and applicable to every generation. The emphasis on thinking about the world and changes around him solidified him one of the most influential transcendentalists during this time period. Though this transcendentalist culture seemed contrary to what was occurring in the nation at the time, I feel like these men were simply trying to ascertain their own version of the “frontier” for their culture. While popular culture said that growth and expansion meant making new things and going new places in new ways, Emerson and the transcendentalists’ viewed growth as mental clarity and an open mind. Though both groups had very different methods of arriving at their “frontier” I believe they were seeking the same originality and ingenuity. This sentiment was also expressed in the baseball essay. Though cricket was quite similar to early baseball, Americans had to have their own version of the sport in order to fit in with the current individualistic mindset of the early republic.
Everything involved with the settlement of the American West was a building block for the new American culture. Manifest Destiny, railroads, land grands, the romance of expansion and an endless frontier, the shared enemy of Native Americans, and the sense of progress all drew Americans closer together, although the controversy over slave or free states would eventually drive them completely apart. Democracy provided a shared experience for every American; we all (not including blacks, Mexicans, women, etc) had the same inalienable rights and upheld the same democratic system of government. Nationalism, driven by early success in wars against Britain and the Native Americans, also provided a common link. Even sports like baseball, which had widespread popularity throughout the country, could connect areas as different as New England, the Cotton Belt, and the (modern-day) Midwest. However, economic development drove the country away from a shared culture, as the market system in the Northeast and sections of the "west" like Kentucky was at odds with the controlled system of labor created by slavery in the South. Because most Western settlers were hostile to the economic realities of slavery, this was another obstacle which the shared culture of American music, sports, and western expansion would ultimately fail to overcome.
ReplyDeleteAmerican culture is deeply rooted in national pride and anti-europeanism. The mythology of Davy Crocket and the art of the period champion America as a land of rugged individuals. I would argue that American culture did not evolve, it was invented. That the need for the movement preceded the art itself.
ReplyDeleteIn this way Emerson's call for strictly American literature seems to claim that American Art should ignore the tradition literature in the English Language, that European art could not speak for the American.
Widmer's essay shows that this culture was not unified, that politics inspired much of this identity. But nationalism was fueling every side of the issue, pro-American anti-European attitudes inspired all of this culture.
Lewis's essay about Baseball is very interesting to me, a baseball fan and amateur historian. I have read many similar accounts of the formation of baseball-- most of this understanding (that baseball is an evolution rather than an invention) is fairly new. Traditionally baseball is lauded as AMERICAN and proof of the desire for American's to invent their own culture. While the reality does not support this (baseball is not original to America) the attitude reflects the desire. Whether Baseball is purely American or not we champion it as if it was.
We call Baseball American, and so it is.
American Culture, in this period, is fixated on being essentially American-- and whether it truly was or not the participants in these arts and leisures wanted to believe that they were being original.