Title Rome reborn on western shores : historical imagination and the creation of the American republic / Eran Shalev

Published Charlottesville, Va. : University of Virginia Press, ©2009

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 311 pages) : illustrations Series Jeffersonian America Jeffersonian America. Contents A revolutionary language: history and the classics in the age of revolution -- Britannia corrupt: the British empire in the revolutionary classical imagination -- "Judge the future by the past": the varieties of historical consciousness in revolutionary America -- Taking the toga: American patriots performing antiquity -- Cato americanus: classical pseudonyms and the ratification of the federal constitution -- "The pen of the historian, or the imagination of the poet": the revolution's history classicized -- Epilogue: from republic to empire: beyond 1776 Summary "Rome Reborn on Western Shores examines the literature of the Revolutionary era to explore the ways in which American patriots employed the classics and to assess antiquity's importance to the early political culture of the United States. Where other writers have concentrated on political theory and ideology, Shalev demonstrates that classical discourse constituted a distinct mode of historical thought during the era, tracing the role of the classics from roughly 1760 to 1800 and beyond. His analysis shows how the classics provided a critical perspective on the management of the British Empire, a common fund of legitimizing images and organizing assumptions during the revolutionary conflict, a medium for political discourse in the process of state construction between 1776 and 1787, and a usable past once the Revolution was over. Rome Reborn examines the extent to which classical antiquity, especially Rome, molded understandings of history, politics, and time, even as the experience of the Revolution reshaped patriots' understanding of the classics. The book studies the historical sensibilities that enabled revolutionaries to imagine themselves continuing a historical process that originated with classical Greece and Rome. In particular, their attitudes toward, and understandings of, time provided revolutionaries with a distinct historical consciousness that connected the classical past to the revolutionary present and shaped their expectations about America's future."--Jacket Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes English Print version record Subject Political science -- United States -- History -- 18th century Political culture -- United States -- History -- 18th century Civilization, Classical -- Study and teaching -- United States -- History -- 18th century Classical literature -- Study and teaching -- United States -- History -- 18th century HISTORY -- United States -- Revolutionary Period (1775-1800) Civilization -- Classical influences Civilization, Classical -- Study and teaching Classical literature -- Study and teaching Political culture Political science Antike Rezeption Politieke cultuur. Klassieke oudheid. Historisch besef. Amerikaanse Vrijheidsoorlog. Rezeption. Antike. SUBJECT United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Literature and the revolution United States -- Civilization -- Classical influences. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85139953 Subject United States USA Verenigde Staten. USA. Genre/Form History Form Electronic book LC no. 2009007720 ISBN 9780813928395 0813928397

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