American Jeremiad

Rating:
Summary: consensus point
Review: Sacvan Bercovitch has written a thrilling book not only about early American history (e. g., the Puritain errand in the wilderness) but also about tendencies of American civil discourse. The analysis of history is rhetorical and there is little beyond the dating of the documents that suggests there is more to the writing of history than textual analysis. For some this emphasis will be a strength, for others a profound weakness of the work.

Whatever one's opinion of the approach, the outcome is spectacularly suggestive. The work provides something like a study of the form that the expression of the American dream has taken since the beginning. Most of the discussion concerns the iron exhorations of early American religious leaders. The jeremiad exists in America and seems inseparable from communication of the American people's greatest desire. The jeremiad, since it is a form or perhaps even a genre is not only durable but mutable, applicable to seemingly all realms of American discourse.

I heartily recommend this perceptive little book to those curious about American discourse and the shared form that religious, political and cultural concerns take.

Rating:
Summary: consensus point
Review: Sacvan Bercovitch has written a thrilling book not only about early American history (e. g., the Puritain errand in the wilderness) but also about tendencies of American civil discourse. The analysis of history is rhetorical and there is little beyond the dating of the documents that suggests there is more to the writing of history than textual analysis. For some this emphasis will be a strength, for others a profound weakness of the work.

Whatever one's opinion of the approach, the outcome is spectacularly suggestive. The work provides something like a study of the form that the expression of the American dream has taken since the beginning. Most of the discussion concerns the iron exhorations of early American religious leaders. The jeremiad exists in America and seems inseparable from communication of the American people's greatest desire. The jeremiad, since it is a form or perhaps even a genre is not only durable but mutable, applicable to seemingly all realms of American discourse.

I heartily recommend this perceptive little book to those curious about American discourse and the shared form that religious, political and cultural concerns take.