James Bowdoin And The Patriot Philosophers

Download or read book James Bowdoin and the Patriot Philosophers written by Frank Edward Manuel and published by American Philosophical Society. This book was released on 2004 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of the early years of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, & the life & career of James Bowdoin, the Academy's first president. The strength of the work rests in a combination of its subject matter & execution. The subject matter is both intrinsically interesting & simultaneously neglected. Neither the accomplishments of Bowdoin nor the contributions of the members of the Academy have been adequately studied, & the Manuel's careful exploration is a valuable addition to our understanding of the founding of the nation. Using primary manuscript sources, the work is, by turns, witty, learned, & often simply fascinating. An incomparable account of one of Revolutionary America's most elusive & fascinating figures.

Download or read book Tangible Things written by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-02-06 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a world obsessed with the virtual, tangible things are once again making history. Tangible Things invites readers to look closely at the things around them, ordinary things like the food on their plate and extraordinary things like the transit of planets across the sky. It argues that almost any material thing, when examined closely, can be a link between present and past. The authors of this book pulled an astonishing array of materials out of storage--from a pencil manufactured by Henry David Thoreau to a bracelet made from iridescent beetles--in a wide range of Harvard University collections to mount an innovative exhibition alongside a new general education course. The exhibition challenged the rigid distinctions between history, anthropology, science, and the arts. It showed that object-centered inquiry inevitably leads to a questioning of categories within and beyond history. Tangible Things is both an introduction to the range and scope of Harvard's remarkable collections and an invitation to reassess collections of all sorts, including those that reside in the bottom drawers or attics of people's houses. It interrogates the nineteenth-century categories that still divide art museums from science museums and historical collections from anthropological displays and that assume history is made only from written documents. Although it builds on a larger discussion among specialists, it makes its arguments through case studies, hoping to simultaneously entertain and inspire. The twenty case studies take us from the Galapagos Islands to India and from a third-century Egyptian papyrus fragment to a board game based on the twentieth-century comic strip "Dagwood and Blondie." A companion website catalogs the more than two hundred objects in the original exhibition and suggests ways in which the principles outlined in the book might change the way people understand the tangible things that surround them.

Download or read book The Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Early American Republic, 1783–1812 [3 volumes] written by Spencer C. Tucker and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-06-11 with total page 2782 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Relatively little attention has been paid to American military history between 1783 and 1812—arguably the most formative years of the United States. This encyclopedia fills the void in existing literature and provides greater understanding of how the nation evolved during this era. This encyclopedia offers a comprehensive examination of U.S. military history from the beginning of the republic in 1783 up to the eve of war with Great Britain in 1812. It enables a detailed study of the Early Republic, during which ideological and political divisions occurred over the fledgling U.S. military. The entries cover all the important battles, key individuals, weapons, Indian nations, and treaties, as well as numerous social, political, cultural, and economic developments during this period. The contents of the work will enable readers at the high school, college, university, and even graduate level to comprehend how political parties emerged, and how ideological differences over the organization, size, and use of the military developed. Larger global developments, including Anglo-American and Franco-American interactions, relations between Middle Eastern states and the United States, and relations and warfare between the U.S. government and various Indian nations are also detailed. The extensive and detailed bibliographies will be immensely helpful to learners at all levels.

Download or read book American Revolution [5 volumes] written by Spencer C. Tucker and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2018-09-14 with total page 4607 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With more than 1,300 cross-referenced entries covering every aspect of the American Revolution, this definitive scholarly reference covers the causes, course, and consequences of the war and the political, social, and military origins of the nation. This authoritative and complete encyclopedia covers not only the eight years of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) but also the decades leading up to the war, beginning with the French and Indian War, and the aftermath of the conflict, with an emphasis on the early American Republic. Volumes one through four contain a series of overview essays on the causes, course, and consequences of the American Revolution, followed by impeccably researched A–Z entries that address the full spectrum of political, social, and military matters that arose from the conflict. Each entry is cross-referenced to other entries and also lists books for further reading. In addition, there is a detailed bibliography, timeline, and glossary. A fifth volume is devoted to primary sources, each of which is accompanied by an insightful introduction that places the document in its proper historical context. The primary sources help readers to understand the myriad motivations behind the American Revolution; the diplomatic, military, and political maneuvering that took place during the conflict; and landmark documents that shaped the founding and early development of the United States.

Download or read book Literature in the Making written by Nancy Glazener and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the eighteenth century, literature meant learned writings; by the twentieth century, literature had come to be identified with imaginative, aesthetically significant works, and academic literary studies had developed special protocols for interpreting and valuing literary texts. Literature in the Making examines what happened in between: how literature came to be more precisely specified and valued; how it was organized into genres, canons, and national traditions; and how it became the basis for departments of modern languages and literatures in research universities. Modern literature, the version of literature familiar today, was an international invention, but it was forged when literary cultures, traditions, and publishing industries were mainly organized nationally. Literature in the Making examines modern literature's coalescence and institutionalization in the United States, considered as an instructive instance of a phenomenon that was going global. Since modern literature initially offered a way to formulate the value of legacy texts by authors such as Homer, Cervantes, and Shakespeare, however, the development of literature and literary culture in the U.S. was fundamentally transnational. Literature in the Making argues that Shakespeare studies, one of the richest tracts of nineteenth-century U.S. literary culture, was a key domain in which literature came to be valued both for fuelling modern projects and for safeguarding values and practices that modernity put at risk-a foundational paradox that continues to shape literary studies and literary culture. Bringing together the histories of literature's competing conceptualizations, its print infrastructure, its changing status in higher education, and its life in public culture during the long nineteenth century, Literature in the Making offers a robust account of how and why literature mattered then and matters now. By highlighting the lively collaboration between academics and non-academics that prevailed before the ascendancy of the research university starkly divided experts from amateurs, Literature in the Making also opens new possibilities for envisioning how academics might partner with the reading public.

Download or read book Gentlemen Scientists and Revolutionaries written by Tom Shachtman and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science and experimentation were at the heart of the Founding Fathers' philosophies and actions. The Founders relentlessly tinkered, invented, farmed by means of scientific principles, star-gazed, were fascinated by math, used scientific analogies and scientific thinking in their political writing, and fell in love with technologies. They conceived of the United States of America as a grand "experiment" in the scientific meaning of the word. George Washington's embrace of an experimental vaccination for smallpox saved the American army in 1777. He was also considered the most scientific farmer in the country. John Adams founded a scientific society and wrote public support of science into the Massachusetts constitution. The president of another scientific society, Thomas Jefferson, convinced its leading lights to train Meriwether Lewis for the Lewis and Clark expedition; his Declaration of Independence was so suffused with scientific thinking that it was called Newtonian. Benjamin Franklin's fame as an "electrician" gave him the status to persuade France to help America win the Revolutionary War. Thomas Paine invented smokeless candles, underwater bombs, and the first-ever iron span bridge. In Gentlemen Scientists and Revolutionaries, Tom Shachtman provides the full story of how the intellectual excitement of scientific discoveries had a powerful influence on America's Founding Fathers.

Download or read book Allegiance to Liberty written by Barry J. Balleck and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-11-25 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This provocative volume explores how and why the word "patriot" has been appropriated by those who fight against the U.S. government—sometimes advocating violence in support of their goals. Today, as in the past, some "patriot" groups in America long for a return to traditional values and believe it is their duty to stop an intrusive government from whittling away at the freedoms that define the United States. This book looks at the origins and current activities of such groups through an exploration of the dual nature of the patriot in American mythos—the unquestioning lover of the country and its policies versus the man or woman who places the founding principle of limited government above all else. Focusing on contemporary patriot groups and their impact on U.S. society, the work offers insights into factors that have contributed to the rise of such groups in the past that are again manifesting themselves. It explores the groups' motivations and justifications and shows how these groups use the emotionally powerful sentiment of patriotism to agitate for change and promote political violence. Perhaps most significant for readers is a discussion of the beliefs that divide the American public today as reflected in the ideologies of patriot groups—and what this means for the future.