Benjamin L. Carp
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195304022
- eISBN:
- 9780199788606
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195304022.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
During the Revolutionary War, the largest American cities played host to major military engagements. From the American standpoint, the physical characteristics that rendered the cities ideal for ...
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During the Revolutionary War, the largest American cities played host to major military engagements. From the American standpoint, the physical characteristics that rendered the cities ideal for political mobilization also made them vulnerable to British occupation or even destruction. The war disrupted the cities' economic functions. As each of the five cities in this book became untenable, Patriot sympathizers abandoned them for the countryside, and the cities capitulated to occupying forces. This ignominious wartime history, coupled with agrarian ideals and widespread distrust of urban crowds, has led the cities' prewar significance to diminish in American memory. Although the cities of the United States retained their importance as centers of commerce and manufacturing, it was uncertain whether they would ever again play so crucial a role in political mobilization and the advancement of democratic ideas and practices. Still, a variety of groups continued to rely on the cities for political activity.Less
During the Revolutionary War, the largest American cities played host to major military engagements. From the American standpoint, the physical characteristics that rendered the cities ideal for political mobilization also made them vulnerable to British occupation or even destruction. The war disrupted the cities' economic functions. As each of the five cities in this book became untenable, Patriot sympathizers abandoned them for the countryside, and the cities capitulated to occupying forces. This ignominious wartime history, coupled with agrarian ideals and widespread distrust of urban crowds, has led the cities' prewar significance to diminish in American memory. Although the cities of the United States retained their importance as centers of commerce and manufacturing, it was uncertain whether they would ever again play so crucial a role in political mobilization and the advancement of democratic ideas and practices. Still, a variety of groups continued to rely on the cities for political activity.
Philip Thibodeau
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520268326
- eISBN:
- 9780520950252
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520268326.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book reinvigorates our understanding of Vergil's Georgics, a vibrant work written by Rome's premier epic poet shortly before he began the Aeneid. Setting the Georgics in the social context of ...
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This book reinvigorates our understanding of Vergil's Georgics, a vibrant work written by Rome's premier epic poet shortly before he began the Aeneid. Setting the Georgics in the social context of its day, the book connects the poem's idyllic, and idealized, portrait of rustic life and agriculture with changing attitudes toward the countryside in late Republican and early Imperial Rome. It argues that what has been seen as a straightforward poem about agriculture is in fact an enchanting work of fantasy that elevated, and sometimes whitewashed, the realities of country life. Drawing from a wide range of sources, the book shows how Vergil's poem reshaped agrarian ideals in its own time, and how it influenced Roman poets, philosophers, agronomists, and orators. The book brings a fresh perspective to a work that was praised by Dryden as “the best poem by the best poet”.Less
This book reinvigorates our understanding of Vergil's Georgics, a vibrant work written by Rome's premier epic poet shortly before he began the Aeneid. Setting the Georgics in the social context of its day, the book connects the poem's idyllic, and idealized, portrait of rustic life and agriculture with changing attitudes toward the countryside in late Republican and early Imperial Rome. It argues that what has been seen as a straightforward poem about agriculture is in fact an enchanting work of fantasy that elevated, and sometimes whitewashed, the realities of country life. Drawing from a wide range of sources, the book shows how Vergil's poem reshaped agrarian ideals in its own time, and how it influenced Roman poets, philosophers, agronomists, and orators. The book brings a fresh perspective to a work that was praised by Dryden as “the best poem by the best poet”.
Phoebe S.K. Young
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- June 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780195372410
- eISBN:
- 9780190093587
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195372410.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century, Cultural History
The introduction explains the complexities involved in the definition and history of camping, and the ways its recreational, political, and functional versions have intertwined and coevolved. It ...
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The introduction explains the complexities involved in the definition and history of camping, and the ways its recreational, political, and functional versions have intertwined and coevolved. It relates camping to the concept of the social contract that anchored the founding era of the United States, particularly as an agrarian ideal promoted by Thomas Jefferson. Moreover, it introduces the term “public nature”—both outdoor spaces and ideas about those spaces as settings where people work out relationships to nature, nation, and each other—as a useful way to approach the key questions of the book: What does it mean to camp, and why does it matter? The introduction offers a brief overview of the social contract and its relationship to public nature through the early twentieth centuries, touching on John Locke’s philosophy, back-to-the-land movements, the growth of urban industrial systems, consumer culture, and preservation movements.Less
The introduction explains the complexities involved in the definition and history of camping, and the ways its recreational, political, and functional versions have intertwined and coevolved. It relates camping to the concept of the social contract that anchored the founding era of the United States, particularly as an agrarian ideal promoted by Thomas Jefferson. Moreover, it introduces the term “public nature”—both outdoor spaces and ideas about those spaces as settings where people work out relationships to nature, nation, and each other—as a useful way to approach the key questions of the book: What does it mean to camp, and why does it matter? The introduction offers a brief overview of the social contract and its relationship to public nature through the early twentieth centuries, touching on John Locke’s philosophy, back-to-the-land movements, the growth of urban industrial systems, consumer culture, and preservation movements.
