出刊年月/Date of Publishing

1994.06

所屬卷期/Vol. & No.   第24卷第2期 Vol. 24, No. 2

類型/Type                 研究論文 Research Article

篇名/Title
A “Perfectly Different” People: The Redefinition of America in the Era of the American Revolution
一個完全不同的民族

作者/Author
格林 Jack P. Greene

頁碼/Pagination
pp. 1-30

摘要
本文探討美國革命期間美國及美國人轉變中的認同概念。儘管十八世紀初葉經濟與人口的非凡成長，以及政治、社會與文化的發展，英屬的北美殖民地居民在美國革命之前，並無積極的認同意識。殖民者以歐洲的標準來評斷自己，認爲本身與其社會是簡單而未開發的。然而，在十八世紀最後30年間，英國、歐洲與美國的觀察家受到美國革命及相關的政治成就之鼓舞下，以更仔細而同情的態度重新檢視美國及其人民。對於貶低非裔美國人與虐待印第安人方面著墨甚少，並強調某些獨特的社會情境，使美國成爲優越地區，使美國的自由白人成爲特殊民族。在此一過程中遂浮現出一種對美國及白人居民更爲肯定的看法。

Abstract
This paper investigates the period of the American Revolution and how developments during this time contributed to the on-going process of the construction of an American identity. Even though in the early years of the 18th Century, the residents of colonial British America had experienced vigorous demographic and economic growth, as well as political, social and cultural development, prior to the American Revolution they had no positive feeling of corporate self. They used Europe as the criteria for judgment, believing themselves and their society to be simple and undeveloped. However, in the last thirty years of the 18th Century, the American Revolution and its attendant developments inspired English, European and American observers, which led to a careful and sympathetic reexamination of America and her people. Overall, however, there was a wide range of national blindness to the degrading of Afro-Americans and the abuse of American Indians, while highlighting the unique social configurations which caused America to become a globally dominant country and the free white people of America to become the preeminent ethnic group there. In this process, there gradually appeared a highly positive conceptualization of America as an exceptional place and Americans as an exceptional people.

關鍵字/Key Word
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DOI
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學門分類/Subject
史學 History