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People of Paradox: An Inquiry Concerning the Origins of American Civilization / Edition 1 - Paperback | Diverse Reads

People of Paradox: An Inquiry Concerning the Origins of American Civilization / Edition 1

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From the beginning, what has given our culture its distinctive texture, pattern, and thrust, according to Michael Kammen, is the dynamic interaction of the imported and the indigenous. He shows how, during the years of colonization, some ideas and institutions were transferred virtually intact from Britain, while, simultaneously, others were being transformed in the New World. As he unravels the tangled origins of our culture, he makes us see that unresolved contradictions in the American experience have created our national style. Puritanical and hedonistic, idealistic and materialistic, peace-loving and war-mongering: these opposing strands go back to the genesis of our history.

ISBN-13: 9780801497551

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Publication Date: 08-02-1990

Pages: 368

Product Dimensions: 5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.83(d)

Age Range: 18 Years

Series: Cornell Paperbacks

Michael Kammen is the Newton C. Farr Professor of American History and Culture, and Director, Society for the Humanities, at Cornell University. His book, People of Paradox: An Inquiry concerning the Origins of American Civilization received the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1973, and he is the author of "What Is the Good of History?" Selected Letters of Carl L. Becker, 1900-1945, and A Rope of Sand: The Colonial Agents, British Politics, and the American Revolution, both published by Cornell University Press.

Table of Contents

PART ONE: THE UNRECORDED HUM OF IMPLICATION
Prolegomenon
Chapter 1: The Old World and the New, Pari Passu
Chapter 2: The Quest for Legitimacy in Colonial America
Chapter 3: Invertebrate America: The Problem of Unstable Pluralism
Epilogism: Some Interconnections

PART TWO: A STRANGE HYBRID, INDEED
Prolegomenon
Chapter 4: Biformity: A Frame of Reference
Chapter 5: Conflict, Crisis, and Change: The Context of English Colonization
Chapter 6: Contradictory Tendencies in Colonial America
Epilogism: Some Comparisons

PART THREE: THE IMPLICATIONS OF BIFORMITY
Prolegomenon
Chapter 7: Ambiguities of the American Revolution
Chapter 8: Encrustations of Space and Time, circa 1825–1925
Chapter 9: The Contrapuntal Civilization

Bibliographical Suggestions
Index