The Geographic Revolution in Early America: Maps, Literacy, and National Identity (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and ... and the University of North Carolina Press) - Hardcover

Martin Bruckner

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807830003 ISBN 13: 9780807830000

Publisher: Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press, 2006

Synopsis

The rapid rise in popularity of maps and geography handbooks in the eighteenth century ushered in a new geographic literacy among nonelite Americans. In a pathbreaking and richly illustrated examination of this transformation, Martin Bruckner argues that geographic literacy as it was played out in popular literary genres--written, for example, by William Byrd, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Royall Tyler, Charles Brockden Brown, Meriwether Lewis, and William Clark--significantly influenced the formation of identity in America from the 1680s to the 1820s.

Drawing on historical geography, cartography, literary history, and material culture, Bruckner recovers a vibrant culture of geography consisting of property plats and surveying manuals, decorative wall maps and school geographies, the nation's first atlases, and sentimental objects such as needlework samplers. By showing how this geographic revolution affected the production of literature, Bruckner demonstrates that the internalization of geography as a kind of language helped shape the literary construction of the modern American subject. Empirically rich and provocative in its readings, The Geographic Revolution in Early America proposes a new, geographical basis for Anglo-Americans' understanding of their character and its expression in pedagogical and literary terms.

About this title

Book Description

"A book that contributes very positively to moving the study of maps, mapping and geography beyond the simple antinomies inherent in the study of mapping as a form of oppression."-- American Historical Review

From the Inside Flap

The rapid rise in popularity of maps and geography handbooks in the 18th century ushered in a new geographic literacy among nonelite Americans. Drawing on historical geography, cartography, literary history, and material culture, Bruckner argues that geographic literacy as it was played out in popular literary genres significantly influenced identity formation in America from the 1680s to the 1820s. Includes readings of work by William Byrd, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Royall Tyler, Charles Brockden Brown, Meriwether Lewis, and William Clark.

Edition details

• Publisher: Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0807830003
• ISBN 13: 9780807830000
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 296