Providence and the Invention of the United States, 1607–1876

by Nicholas Guyatt

• ISBN13: 9780521867887
• ISBN10: 0521867886
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-07-23
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Nicholas Guyatt offers a completely new understanding of a central question in American history: how did Americans come to think that God favored the United States above other nations? Tracing the story of American providentialism, this book uncovers the British roots of American religious nationalism before the American Revolution and the extraordinary struggles of white Americans to reconcile their ideas of national mission with the racial diversity of the early republic. Making sense of previously diffuse debates on manifest destiny, millenarianism, and American mission, Providence and the Invention of the United States explains the origins and development of the idea that God has a special plan for America. This conviction supplied the United States with a powerful sense of national purpose, but it also prevented Americans from clearly understanding events and people that could not easily be fitted into the providential scheme.

Author Biography

Nicholas Guyatt is Assistant Professor of History at Simon Fraser University, Van-couver, British Columbia. He has studied at Cambridge University (B.A., M. Phil.) and Princeton University (Ph.D.). This is his first academic monograph, but his fourth book; a work on apocalyptic Christianity will also be published in 2007. He has written about American history for the London Review of Books and the Nation.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments page	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
Britain, America, and the Emergence of Providential Separatism
Providence and the Problem of England in Early America	p. II
"Openinge a Dore" : 1600-1640	p. 14
"A Constant Correspondence": 1640-1660	p. 30
"To Rip Up the Womb of Time": 1660-1700	p. 42
Conclusion": "Magnalia Dei"	p. 49
"Empires Are Mortal": The Origins of Providential Separatism, 1756-1775	p. 53
"This Providential Key": Providence and Public Affairs in Hanoverian Britain	p. 55
"The Indulgence of Heaven": National Identity in the Seven Years' War	p. 62
"A Dream in the Night": The Discontinuities of British History	p. 69
"That Awful Goal": Imperial Decline and the Future of America	p. 76
"Open Paths": The Development of American Providentialism	p. 82
Conclusion: "People of Different Genius"	p. 90
"Becoming a Nation at Once": Providentialism and the American Revolution	p. 95
"The Asylum of Liberty and True Religion": Patriot Providentialism	p. 96
"To Deceive the Elect": The Limits of Providential Appeal	p. 104
"Pencillers of Providence": Britain and the Meaning of the Revolution	p. 114
Conclusion: Thanksgiving 1783-1784	p. 128
Providence, Race, and the Limits of Revolution
"Our Glorious Example": The Limits of Revolutionary Providentialism	p. 137
Providence, Reform, and Revlution: 1786-1796	p. 141
Confounded Expectations: 1796-1808	p. 150
"The Illustrious Hereafter": 1808-1815	p. 161
Conclusion: "Citizens of the World"	p. 168
"Deifying Prejudice": Race and Removal in the Early Republic	p. 173
"The Hand of Heaven Is in It": The Blueprint for Indian Removal	p. 174
"A Divine Impulse": Removing Blacks	p. 183
"The Obvious Designs of Heaven": Providence and the Politics of Removal	p. 194
Conclusion: "Judgments Are Yet to Be Visited upon Us"	p. 207
"Divided Destinies": The Providential Meanings of American Slavery	p. 214
"The Fulfillment of Our Mission": Expansion and Its Critics	p. 216
Slavery and Providence	p. 230
"The Key to American History": Slavery and the Rationale for Secession	p. 246
Conclusion: "That Great Idea of National Continuity"	p. 256
"The Regenerated Nation": The Civil War and the Price of Reunion	p. 259
"What Is to Be the Mission of This Nation?": God and the Confederacy	p. 261
"We Will Retrieve Our Destiny": Slavery, War, and Reunion	p. 275
Conclusion: "The Great Deliverance"	p. 297
William Lloyd Garrison's Complaint	p. 299
Providence and the New South	p. 302
"The Sacred Significance of This War"	p. 309
Conclusion: "Centennial Reflections"	p. 319
Index	p. 327
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