Book contents
- American Literature in Transition, 1820–1860
- Nineteenth-Century American Literature in Transition
- American Literature in Transition, 1820–1860
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Series Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Part I Fractures and Continuities
- Chapter 2 Hemisphere
- Chapter 3 Empire
- Chapter 4 Economy
- Chapter 5 Religion
- Chapter 6 Nature
- Chapter 7 Removal
- Chapter 8 Abolition
- Part II Forms and Formats
- Part III Authors and Figures
- Index
Chapter 3 - Empire
from Part I - Fractures and Continuities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 June 2022
- American Literature in Transition, 1820–1860
- Nineteenth-Century American Literature in Transition
- American Literature in Transition, 1820–1860
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Series Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Part I Fractures and Continuities
- Chapter 2 Hemisphere
- Chapter 3 Empire
- Chapter 4 Economy
- Chapter 5 Religion
- Chapter 6 Nature
- Chapter 7 Removal
- Chapter 8 Abolition
- Part II Forms and Formats
- Part III Authors and Figures
- Index
Summary
This essay situates the rise of US empire in the nineteenth century within a longer, transnational, and transoceanic colonial project that has been continuously catastrophic – from the arrival of Columbus to the threats of climate change and nuclear disaster – for both Indigenous societies and nonhuman ecosystems. The essay shows how such ecological and geopolitical disruptions were central to both US nation-building and the development of an American national literature, while at the same time highlighting the causal relation and essential continuity between the extractive enterprises and imperial expansionism of the early United States and the planetary crises of the twenty-first century.
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- American Literature in Transition, 1820–1860 , pp. 37 - 53Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022
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