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A Poet, A Planter, And A Nation Of Farmers, Richard Bushman

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

For the past few days in Harpers Ferry we have been inventing and reinventing American nationalism in a marvelous variegation of scholarly papers. We have heard about nationalism and travel, nationalism and antislavery women, nationalism and male identity--and southern artisans, and black nationalists, and even luxury hotels. Although we try to put ironic distance between ourselves and the more egregious forms of nationalism, the papers seem to share the popular fascination with American identity. We cannot resist staring into history and asking who we are as a nation, how did we come to be so wonderful, and why have we …