Early America

Paper Summary:

This paper critiques Calloway's book about the uniqueness of the American nation and how evidence of this uniqueness can be found in history long before the founding of the nation itself. The paper concludes that the book is valuable not simply because of the wealth of information it includes, but also because it shows that, from the beginning, there was no seamless and harmonious American identity, that America was a land founded on many cultures.

From the Paper:

"When positing why America is unique as a nation, Americans often respond with references to American legal guarantees of freedom that date back to the founding of the Constitution, or, at the earliest, the 1776 Declaration of Independence. However, early American historian Colin Calloway contends that America's uniqueness as a nation extends far back in its history, long before the founding of the nation itself, to the plurality of nationalities and cultures that made up its early ethnic and cultural landscape during the first American settlements. Calloway challenges the idea that America was 'naturally' of the Native peoples and then impinged upon by European cultures. He also challenges the European historical worldview that Native culture was completely destroyed by immigration and European encroachment. Rather, he suggests that the varieties and pluralities of Indian culture were in dialogue with Europe in the so-called New World, and these cultural dialogues created a cultural landscape never seen before. Although the Europeans may have ultimately become the conquerors of the territory of what is now the United States of America, the cultural dialogue between native and conquering people is still in evidence. This has been true throughout history, from the Anglo-Saxon absorption through cultural "confluences" after the 1066 sacking of England, but is no were 'as true' as the European settlements' role in reconfiguring the culture of the Americas. (Calloway, 2)"

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