The Rites of Assent: Transformations in the Symbolic Construction of America

by Sacvan Bercovitch

Book Overview

The Rites of Assent examines the cultural strategies through which "America" served as a vehicle simultaneously for diversity and cohesion, fusion and fragmentation. Taking an ethnographic, cross-cultural approach, The Rites of Assent traces the meanings and purposes of "America" back to the colonial typology of mission, and specifically (in chapters on Puritan rhetoric, Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards, and the movement from Revival to Revolution)...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415900158
• ISBN13: 9780415900157
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

The Most Important Study of American Culture Ever Written

This is probably the most important book ever written on the foundations of American Literature. It is a crucial book for any student or teacher of American Literature or American Culture.