Bücher von Edward Watts

Explores the idea of "primordialism" and reveals its consistent presence over the span of nineteenth-century American print culture in writers ranging from Washington Irving to Mark Twain.

When Anglo-Americans looked west after the Revolution, they hoped to see a blank slate to build their republic. But, French settlers had inhabited the territory. Images of these French settlers saturated every American text. This work argues that these representations played a significant role in developing the identity of the new nation.