In Unfinished Revolution: The Early American Republic in a British World, Sam W. Haynes argues that the young United States showed signs of much apprehension and unease about its nationhood, despite having a grand rhetoric of manifest destiny and American exceptionalism. To show this, the author examines the United States from its inception to 1850, and in particular, American concerns about Great Britain’s power and imagination of British culture. Many Americans in the young republic were still Anglophiles, looking to Great Britain for culture, taste, and refinement. On the other hand, those that did not admire British society saw the Crown as the gravest threat to the United States; the War of 1812 solidified this view in American minds for years following the war. Regardless of who in the early republic admired or hated the British, Americans as a whole were very sensitive to the perception of their nation abroad. Americans were constantly asking foreigners this question: “What do you think of our country?” Often the answer to that question made Americans even more self-conscious of how they were perceived. “I do not like them. I do not like their principles, I do not like their manners, I do not like their opinions,” was Frances Trollope’s (who was British) well-known reply. (p. 34) The seeming lack of manners and cultural sophistication compared to Great Britain gave Americans an inferiority complex that spread to many areas of American life. Ironically, Haynes shows that the young American nation sought somewhat desperately for validation and acceptance from the imperial power that used to rule them.
In the first two chapters, the author examines the pull of Britishness in American literature and the backlash against that pull. “Who reads an American book?” In the early republic, very few did, which led Ralph Waldo Emerson to issue a proclamation calling for original American literary works that were not based on books or writers from abroad. He advocated the development of “literary nationalism,” a uniquely American body of work that would help create a distinct American culture. (p. 51-76) The author then moves the discussion to politics and international relations. In government, both the Democratic Party and Whig Party tried to fuel suspicion and fear of all things British to further distance the early republic from its colonial master. Territorial disputes created further unease because of perceived British hostility in the disputes. Americans feared that the British were meddling with the efforts to admit Maine, Florida, and Texas into the United States, as well as the status of the Oregon Territory, but that proved to not be the case. (p. 230-250) Nevertheless, it generated great anxiety over the strength of the young nation even as the United States was manifestly marching to the Pacific. The Anglophobia in America waned once the United States reached the West Coast, which dispelled the fear of Europeans encircling the United States in the west. Haynes does an excellent job of illuminating Britain’s role in shaping early American society, by both acting as a disinterested role model and as an international agitator that spurred the development of a distinct American culture. He shows that Great Britain’s influence lasted well beyond the last military engagement between the United States and the Crown in the War of 1812.[1]
Unfinished Revolution actually fits well with Jack P. Greene’s article, “Colonial History and National History: Reflections on a Continuing Problem,” for Haynes’ narrative provides evidence for some of Greene’s claims.[2] For example, Greene notes that English settler colonies in particular were deeply attached to the metropole, and those settlers often reproduced the policies, social structures, and culture of the imperial power, reproductions that lasted beyond direct British control of the settler colonies. Haynes shows this to be the case in his discussion of American literature and political system as being British-inflected. Further, Greene argues that the development of the early American republic was characterized by state, local, and community action, and that scholarship should emphasize this; the overall narrative of Unfinished Revolution focuses on the formation of local communities as he suggests, not the development or role of the federal government. The chapter on Texas is constructed as to show a process of colonization, both in the initial settlements of whites and later annexation of the region, which supports Greene’s claim that colonization didn’t end with the expulsion of the British. Rather, it continued on into the west as territories were annexed and Native Americans expelled or subjugated. (Adam Rothman’s critique of Greene’s emphasis on the primacy of state over federal history is interesting, for Rothman points out the federal government’s critical role in the annexation of states, which is something that Greene and Haynes neglect.)[3] Haynes’ work is valuable in that it partly does what Greene suggests: Unfinished Revolution interweaves colonialism, colonizer-colony relations (including post-independence relations), and nation building into a continuous narrative without trying to separate these processes. It also provides excellent insights into the early American imagination, an imagination dominated by Great Britain and Anglo culture.
[1] Sam W. Haynes, Unfinished Revolution: The Early American Republic in a British World (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010).
[2] Jack P. Greene, “Colonial History and National History: Reflections on a Continuing Problem,” William and Mary Quarterly 63, no. 2 (April 2007).
[3] Adam Rothman, “Beware the Weak State,” William and Mary Quarterly 63, no. 2 (April 2007).