The U.S. foreign policy and the formation of national identity, 1793-1815 Trautsch, Jasper M creator text enk 2018 monographic eng xiv, 314 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. "The Genesis of America investigates the ways in which U.S. foreign policy contributed to the formation of an American national consciousness. Interpreting American nationalism as a process of external demarcation, Jasper M. Trautsch argues that, for a sense of national self to emerge, the U.S. needed to be disentangled from its most important European reference points: Great Britain and France. As he shows, foreign policy makers could therefore promote American nationalism by provoking foreign crises and wars with these countries, thereby creating external threats that would bind the fragile union together. By reconstructing how foreign policy was thus used as a nation-building instrument, Trautsch provides an answer to the puzzling question of how Americans - lacking a shared history and culture of their own and justifying their claim for independent nationhood by appeals to universal rights - could develop a sense of particularity after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War"-- "On July 1, 1776, John Dickinson - a member of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Continental Congress - explained to the assembled convention why he was opposed to a declaration of independence. "To escape from the protection we have in British rule by declaring independence would be like Destroying a House before We have got another, In Winter, with a small Family," he told his colleagues. Before seeking separation from the mother country, "We should know on what Grounds We are to stand with Regard to one another," he suggested but found that "Some of Us totally despair of any reasonable Terms of Confederation." Dickinson therefore came to the conclusion that "PARTITION of these Colonies will take place if Great Britain cant conquer Us." Not only did the revolutionaries take the risk that they might lose the War of Independence against Great Britain; they also had to expect the union to fall apart if they were indeed successful, so Dickinson's argument went. Since no American collective sense of self had yet de- veloped, their attachment to Great Britain was all that tied colonists to each other. Once they severed the connection to the mother country, Americans, not yet having developed a national identity, would lack the foundation for maintaining their union"-- Political Ideologies and American Identity in the Era of the French Revolution -- Foreign Policies of Unneutrality and the Jay Treaty -- Federalists and the Origins of the Quasi-War -- Disentangling America from France -- Republicans and the Origins of the War of 1812 -- Disentangling America from Great Britain. Machine generated contents note: Introduction; 1. Political ideologies and American identity in the era of the French Revolution; 2. Foreign policies of unneutrality and the Jay Treaty; 3. Federalists and the origins of the Quasi-War; 4. Disentangling America from France; 5. Republicans and the origins of the War of 1812; 6. Disentangling America from Great Britain; Conclusion. Jasper M. Trautsch ; University of Regensburg, Germany. Includes bibliographical references (pages 270-303) and index. n-us--- Nationalism United States History 18th century Nationalism United States History 19th century Nacionalismo Estados Unidos Historia Estados Unidos Relaciones exteriores 1783-1815 002 E 310.7 T778g 2018 327.73009/033 9781108428248 (hardback) 110842824X (hardback) 2018007012 DLC 180518 20251010133008.0 20501256 eng