{"product_id":"colonizing-the-past-mythmaking-and-pre-columbian-whites-in-nineteenth-century-american-writing-9780813943879","title":"Colonizing the Past: Mythmaking and Pre-Columbian Whites in Nineteenth-Century American Writing","description":"\u003cp\u003eAfter the Revolution, Americans realized they lacked the common, deep, or meaningful history that might bind together their loose confederation of former colonies into a genuine nation. They had been conquerors yet colonials, now politically independent yet culturally subordinate to European history and traditions. To resolve these paradoxes, some early republic \"historians\" went so far as to reconstruct pre-Columbian, transatlantic adventures by white people that might be employed to assert their rights and ennoble their identities as Americans.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eColonizing the Past\u003c\/i\u003e, Edward Watts labels this impulse \"primordialism\" and reveals its consistent presence over the span of nineteenth-century American print culture. In dozens of texts, Watts tracks episodes in which varying accounts of pre-Columbian whites attracted widespread attention: the Welsh Indians, the Lost Tribes of Israel, the white Mound Builders, and the Vikings, as well as two ancient Irish interventions. In each instance, public interest was ignited when representations of the group in question became enmeshed in concurrent conversations about the nation's evolving identity and policies. Yet at every turn, counternarratives and public resistance challenged both the plausibility of the pre-Columbian whites and the colonialist symbolism that had been evoked to create a sense of American identity. By challenging the rhetoric of primordialism and empire building, dissenting writers from Washington Irving to Mark Twain exposed the crimes of conquest and white Americans' marginality as ex-colonials.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-6325070\"\u003eEdward Watts\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Virginia Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/14\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 292\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.96lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.66d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780813943879\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0813943876\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-LIT\"\u003eLiterary Criticism\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-LIT004020\"\u003eAmerican | General\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEdward Watts is Professor of English at Michigan State University and author of \u003ci\u003eIn This Remote Country: Colonial French Culture and the Anglo-American Imagination, 1780-1860, \u003c\/i\u003e among other books.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Virginia Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44544428933357,"sku":"9780813943879","price":72.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/8097\/6621\/products\/img_ee5bb7b4-a24e-41b2-bac3-15e82fbd3d7d.jpg?v=1701557063","url":"https:\/\/sureshotbooks.com\/products\/colonizing-the-past-mythmaking-and-pre-columbian-whites-in-nineteenth-century-american-writing-9780813943879","provider":"SureShot Books Publishing LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}