This study examines the meteoric rise and subsequent disintegration of a vigorous American literary-political movement in the 1840s. Calling itself 'Young America', the group found a mouthpiece in the Democratic Review, a literary magazine funded by the Democratic Party and edited by the brash and charismatic John O'Sullivan. The Review was not only a major voice in American politics, but also sponsored such writers as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman and greatly inflenced Herman Melville, before it and Young America ...
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This study examines the meteoric rise and subsequent disintegration of a vigorous American literary-political movement in the 1840s. Calling itself 'Young America', the group found a mouthpiece in the Democratic Review, a literary magazine funded by the Democratic Party and edited by the brash and charismatic John O'Sullivan. The Review was not only a major voice in American politics, but also sponsored such writers as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman and greatly inflenced Herman Melville, before it and Young America faded from the national consciousness after the Mexican-American War.
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Edward L. Widmer?s scholarly work seeks to show the ?Young America? movements of the 1840s and 1850s as having been a second Revolution. Having broken the political bonds with the Mother country, it was time to break many of the cultural bonds. ?Young America? promoted an American style of literature much of which was through the Democratic Review, the genre style of Art e.g. the Hudson School through the American Art Union, and attempted to simplify the laws inherited from Colonial time. Many of those involve in the ?Young America? movement were also advocates of ?manifest destiny,? and it was one of their cohorts, John O?Sullivan, who coined the phrase. Widmer reminds us of several individuals who played important parts in the development of American Nationalism such as Evert Duyckinck who was instrumental in getting many of the now classic American authors published. One is also told of the relationships between many of these authors and publishers, e.g. the close relationship between Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. Though a somewhat slow read, this work allows one to see the connectedness between literature and politics.
The ?Young America II? (1850s)movement was more stridently nationalistic and factional. It was not as all encompassing as the ?Young America? movement of the 1840s. They vociferously supported radical movements in Europe, and Widmer notes that by ?[i]dentifying Russia as the source of reaction in Europe ?. [i]n a disconcertingly modern tone, they urged American arms to be deployed against Russia in third countries to prevent the spread of alien principles contrary to democracy.? This group of ?Young America II? were rewarded by President Pierce by being given an assortment of plush diplomatic jobs. Unfortunately almost all of these appointments offended the host governments.
While reading the last chapter of this work it occurred to me that the author provided support for the idea that history repeats itself. However, it doesn?t repeat itself exactly, there are little nuances that change but similarities exist from one century to the next.
