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Place and Belonging in America

David Jacobson

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How did the American people come to develop a moral association with this land, such that their very experience of nationhood was rooted in, and their republican virtues depended upon, that land? And what is happening now as the exclusivity of that moral linkage between people and land becomes ever more attenuated? In Place and Belonging in America, David Jacobson addresses the evolving relationship between geography and citizenship in the United States since the nation's origins.

Americans have commonly assumed that only a people rooted in a bounded territory could safeguard republican virtues...

How did the American people come to develop a moral association with this land, such that their very experience of nationhood was rooted in, and their republican virtues depended upon, that land? And what is happening now as the exclusivity of that moral linkage between people and land becomes ever more attenuated? In Place and Belonging in America, David Jacobson addresses the evolving relationship between geography and citizenship in the United States since the nation's origins.

Americans have commonly assumed that only a people rooted in a bounded territory could safeguard republican virtues. But, as Jacobson argues, in the contemporary world of transnational identities, multiple loyalties, and permeable borders, the notion of a singular territorial identity has lost its resonance. The United States has come to represent a diverse quilt of cultures with varying ties to the land. These developments have transformed the character of American politics to one in which the courts take a much larger role in mediating civic life. An expanding web of legal rights enables individuals and groups to pursue their own cultural and social ends, in contrast to the civic republican practice of an active citizenry legislating its collective life.

In the first part of his sweeping study, Jacobson considers the origins of the uniquely American sense of place, exploring such components as the Puritans and their religious vision of the New World; the early Republic and agrarian virtue as extolled in the writings of Thomas Jefferson; the nationalization of place during the Civil War; and the creation of post-Civil War monuments and, later, the national park system. The second part of Place and Belonging in America concerns the contemporary United States and its more complex interactions between space and citizenship. Here Jacobson looks at the multicultural landscape as represented by the 1991 act of Congress that changed the name of the Custer Battlefield National Monument to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and the subsequent construction of a memorial honoring the Indian participants in the battle; the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. He also reflects upon changing patterns of immigration and settlement. At once far-reaching and detailed, Place and Belonging in America offers a though-provoking new perspective on the myriad, often spiritual connections between territoriality, national identity, and civic culture.

Reviews

Reviews

Place and Belonging in America should provoke reflection on the importance of issues such as immigration, geographic mobility, and globalization for the viability of politics, properly understood.

Jacobson's lucid and insightful analysis is multilayered and interdisciplinary. Along with deft historical interpretation and incisive sociological investigation, he integrates discussions on politics, philosophy, literature, and religion, highlighting their roles in revealing American's evolving sense of place and identity.

Paying keen attention to interpretation, textuality, and the social uses of landscape, Jacobson's study engages questions that make it a must read.

A thoughtful overview of major events and changes to the American linkages of place and identity to the landscape.

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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
248
ISBN
9780801867798
Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Terra Firma
Chapter 1. An American Eden
Chapter 2. Surveying the Landscape
Chapter 3. Nature's Nation: Preserving the Future
Chapter 4. Spatial Rhythms: Changing the Past
Chapt

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Terra Firma
Chapter 1. An American Eden
Chapter 2. Surveying the Landscape
Chapter 3. Nature's Nation: Preserving the Future
Chapter 4. Spatial Rhythms: Changing the Past
Chapter 5. Intangible Property: A Multihued Landscape
Coda. The Labyrinth of the Soul
Notes
Index

Author Bio
Featured Contributor

David Jacobson

David Jacobson is a professor of sociology at the University of South Florida and the founding director of the Citizenship Initiative. He is author of Rights across Borders: Immigration and the Decline of Citizenship and Place and Belonging in America, both published by Johns Hopkins.