Manuela Albertone: National Identity and the Agrarian Republic: The Transatlantic Commerce of Ideas Between America and France (1750–1830), Ashgate
Risvolto
With a few exceptions, historiography has paid little attention
to the impact of French economic thought during the American Revolution,
focusing instead on the Revolution’s links with Britain. This book
outlines how, from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth century,
the political and social dimension of French economic thought, and
particularly of Physiocracy, spurred American Republicans to a radical
shaping of American agrarian ideology. Such a perspective allows for a
reconsideration of several questions that lie at the heart of
contemporary historiographic debate: the connection between politics and
economics; the meaning of republicanism; the foundations of
representation; the role of Europe in the Atlantic world; and the
interaction between national histories and global context. In
particular, the research methodology adopted here makes it possible to
reconstruct how American national identity, conceived as an expression
of society in economic terms, emerged through a cosmopolitan way of
thinking focused on the uniqueness of the new state.
Contents: Introduction; What is an American?
St John de Crèvecoeur between agrarian myth and national identity;
Republicanism and agrarian democracy; The cosmopolitan vocation of the
agrarian model: Thomas Jefferson; The farmer as common man: Benjamin
Franklin; The agrarian ideology between economic theory and political
struggle: George Logan and John Taylor; Channels for disseminating the
economic culture; The English Jacobins: a three-way interrelation
between France, Britain and America; A long 18th century; Conclusion;
Index.
About the Author: Manuela Albertone is
Professor of Early Modern History in the Department of Historical
Studies, University of Turin, Italy. Her works focus on
eighteenth-century French and American history, and the relationship
between politics and economics. She is particularly interested in the
economic origins of political representation.
Due secoli fa il padre della Dichiarazione d’indipendenza americana chiedeva di fondare la democrazia sui produttori agricoli per limitare lo strapotere speculativo delle banche
Giulio Giorello La Lettura
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