|
|
Article: Celebrating the Fourth: Independence Day and the Rites of Nationalism in the Early Republic.(Review)
- Article from:
- The Historian
- Article date:
- March 22, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Celebrating the Fourth: Independence Day and the Rites of Nationalism in the Early Republic. By Len Travers. (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1997. Pp. x, 278. $29.92.)
This book is as much a history of Independence Day as it is a study of early American nationalism. On the one hand, Len Travers chronicles how in three cities--Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston--Independence Day constructed a "mythos of national identity" from its first celebration in 1777 to the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration in 1826 (6). On the other hand, he uses yearly snapshots taken on July Fourth to trace the nation's passage from its "separation phase," through ...