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The article explores what the author describes as romantic transnationalism in the U.S. Noted is the early 21st-century conflict between two sects: those who find meaning in nations and national identity and those who believe in a global community. The American Revolution is discussed as is nationalism in the U.S. The books "Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution," by Kathleen Duval, and "American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804," by Alan Taylor are compared and contrasted in detail.

This essay outlines the necropolitical structure of the national romance in North and South America, tracing the ways in which the heirs of colonial violence and occupation rewrite themselves as native patriots through rituals of mourning in national culture. Connecting the lament of the Vanishing American in the United States to the celebratory Creole patriot movement in Spanish America, it argues for the centrality of mourning to the work of imagining the nation. Nativist mourning is not only an acknowledgment of loss but also an affirmative materialism through which the mourner emerges as a national subject by rendering impossible a Native American present and presence. This affective economy of the national romance legitimizes Creole nationalism as an indigenous patriotism, a birthright claimed through the sighs and tears of the romance’s reader that evoke simultaneously a feeling in common with always-historical Native American figures and the exceptional position of the survivor, the one who remains to mourn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses U.S. nationalism in relation to the civil rights of American sailors and prisoners of war in British prisons during the War of 1812, and it mentions national identity and loyalty to the U.S. The treatment of captured Americans at the Dartmoor Depot prison in England is examined, along with the impact of disease, poor food, and overcrowding on American prisoners in Great Britain. Reuben Beasley, the American Agent for Prisoners of War in England, is assessed.

An essay is presented that discusses nationalism in the thought of abolitionist David Walker and former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. Topics include the relation of racism to the idea of human rights, Walker's tract "Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, But in Particular Those of the United States of America," and Jefferson's book "Notes on the State of Virginia" and his role in authoring the U.S. Declaration of Independence. The relation of slavery and race to national identity is addressed.

The article examines the role of guerrilla warfare during the U.S. Civil War, dealing with topics including antebellum novels written by proslavery authors, guerilla warfare's connections to Confederate nationalism, and partisan warfare.

The article explores the relationship between the cultivation of the American palate and the development of democratic citizenry in late colonial and early Republic U.S. society. Emphasis is given to the writings of U.S. presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison with a focus on how their sense of taste affected their ideas for an agrarian society. Other topics include Jefferson's construction of a hierarchy of racial difference, the role of slavery, and the development of national identity.

An essay is presented on the role of Illinois newspapers in 19th-century debates over the introduction of slavery to the state. According to the author, these newspapers were part of a nationwide print culture which emphasized nationalist ideals and republican principles rather than individuals' material interests. It is suggested that this culture influenced Illinois voters to decide against slavery. Topics discussed include civic virtue and economic conditions on the Illinois frontier.

Examining both older and recent scholarship of race and nation in early American history and beyond, this article reckons with myriad blind spots and with more recent attempts to alleviate them. Employing both chronological accounts of the early United States and a comparative lens, it argues that the increasingly converging histories of race and nation suggest that the United States should be considered a paradigmatic case of racial nationalism. Indeed, it was nationalism itself that led Americans, both citizens and historians--since the creation of the republic and in many ways until this day--to believe that the United States, as a nation, stood for the words of the Declaration of Independence "that all men are created equal." Recent research, however, reveals that in fact what was perhaps most "self-evident" about the early United States was that these words would prove true only for white men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]