Reginald Horsman’s Race and Manifest Destiny: The Orgins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism explores the evidence and reasons of racial prejudices in America and discusses one of the most controversial topics in American history. The book also navigates the subjects of white superiority, and the creation of Anglo-Saxonism. Manifest Destiny was the belief that the United States was destined to expand from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean; it has also been used to advocate for or justify other territorial acquisitions. Advocates of Manifest Destiny believed that expansion was not only good, but that it was obvious and certain. Originally a political catch phrase of the 19th century, "Manifest Destiny" eventually became a standard historical term, often used as a synonym for the expansion of the United States across the North American continent.In the early 1840s John L. O’Sullivan, editor of the Democratic Review, inaugurated the expression Manifest Destiny to depict American expansionism. O’Sullivan described the nation’s extension as inevitable and criticized those that delayed that progression "for the avowed object of thwarting our policy, limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions."(Horsman 219) Horsman notes that even though O’Sullivan laid claim to the phrase manifest destiny, the idea was embedded in Anglo-Saxon heritage. In chapter one of Horsman the concept of ... ... middle of paper ... ...itical potential from the things you say, the things you embody and the things you want. You can have holidays, but not your language. You can have a month of the year for your race, but no justice. You can have welfare, but not sovereignty. You can practice your culture up until the point where it makes people uncomfortable, or makes things inefficient. Works Cited Bibliography: Horsman, Reginald. Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of Racial Anglo-Saxonism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981. Rosales, F. Arturo. Lecture 2/14 Film The US-Mexican War-Prelude Weber, David J. Foreigners in Their Native Land: The Historical Roots of Mexican Americans. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973.
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Show MoreGary Gerstle argues America followed a path both civic and racial nationalism throughout the 20th century in his book American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century, and that America is a melting pot of different cultures due to the accumulation of immigrants in the twentieth century. He uses Theodore Roosevelt as a support base for his arguments. Civic nationalism is the idealized understanding of America as an ethnic and cultural melting pot based on civil rights, and on the values of equality and liberty no matter the race and ethnicity of one another. Civic nationalism claims a nation can still grow stronger and better based solely on civil rights and citizenship.
In Chapter 8 of Major Problems in American Immigration History, the topic of focus shifts from the United States proper to the expansion and creation of the so called American Empire of the late Nineteenth Century. Unlike other contemporary colonial powers, such as Britain and France, expansion beyond the coast to foreign lands was met with mixed responses. While some argued it to be a mere continuation of Manifest Destiny, others saw it as hypocritical of the democratic spirit which had come to the United States. Whatever their reasons, as United States foreign policy shifted in the direction of direct control and acquisition, it brought forth the issue of the native inhabitants of the lands which they owned and their place in American society. Despite its long history of creating states from acquired territory, the United States had no such plans for its colonies, effectively barring its native subjects from citizenship. Chapter 8’s discussion of Colonialism and Migration reveals that this new class of American, the native, was never to be the equal of its ruler, nor would they, in neither physical nor ideological terms, join in the union of states.
Manifest Destiny was the idea that it was the United States’ destiny to take over all of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Most of the public was in favor of territorial expansion, though some politicians felt it contradicted the constitution.
The Manifest Destiny was a progressive movement starting in the 1840's. John O'Sullivan, a democratic leader, named the movement in 1845. Manifest Destiny meant that westward expansion was America's destiny. The land that was added to the U.S. after 1840 (the start of Manifest Destiny) includes The Texas Annexation (1845), The Oregon Country (1846), The Mexican Cession (1848), The Gadsden Purchase (1853), Alaska (1867), and Hawaii (1898). Although this movement would take several years to accomplish fully, things started changing before we knew it. New technology took off right away!
In 1845, a fellow named John C. Calhoun coined the term "Manifest Destiny." The term Manifest Destiny was a slogan for westward expansion during the 1840's. In the west there was plenty of land, national security, the spread of democracy, urbanization, but there was also poverty out west. People moved out west in search for a new life such as a new beginning. Moving out west, settlers from the east were taking a risk of a lot of things. The climate was different and there were more cultures that lived out west because of how much land was available.
Segal, Charles M. and David C. Stineback, Foreword by Sacvan Barcovitch, Puritans, Indians and Manifest Destiny. Pub: by Putnam, 1977
A well known journalist “John O’Sullivan” was the first one to use the term manifest destiny. The phrase manifest destiny was first used in an issue of the democratic review. Manifest Destiny was basically saying that the U.S had the right to take what they want. The U.S wanted the land out west. This is what started the westward expansion.
Manifest Destiny is the idea that the U.S. will eventually own and govern all of North America. We will not achieve this through military conquest, but through a natural flow of events. This idea surfaced during the time when James K. Polk was president. The benefits of westward expansion outweighed the negative consequences because of the economic development, opportunities, and decrease in travel time.
Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, and James Fenimore Cooper tackle the issue of the racial superiority present in the nation of America, throughout different time periods, in their respective works.
In Race and Manifest Destiny, Reginald Horsman surveys the origins and progression of Anglo-Saxon racial ideology and examines its consequences in American history. Primarily a history of ideas, the book sets the developments of ideologies of post American Revolution and expansion of newly founded America. Anglo-Saxon supremacy allowed for the suppression of other peoples in American history—it justified their enslavement, domination, exclusion, and extinction.
Dickstein, Morris. "Ralph Ellison, Race, And American Culture." Raritan 18.4 (1999): 30. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 27 Nov. 2015.
Americans throughout history have always felt that they were superior. The concept of “Manifest Destiny” has been the fuel to the fire of superiority. Manifest Destiny is the belief that it is American’s are the chosen ones and have the obvious right to conquer and own land between the eastern and western seaboards and that such expansion was inevitable. Manifest Destiny along with Christianity were two reasons that drove and encouraged both expansion within North Amer...
Through interpretations of the “Twilight of the White Races in 1926” written by Muret, race is seen as something that determines one’s ability to certain rights, privileges and social status. Being ‘negro’ is seen as something negative, and something that creates a devastating problem for Whites and more specifically Anglo Saxons inhibiting American society. “This is a critical moment for the western peoples; if they allow themselves to be submerged by the colored races, it is the end of their glory and of their role, and this western civilization of which we are so ...
The first origination was driven by the idea of “Manifest Destiny”, this phrase was first employed by John L. O’Sullivan in an article on the annexation of
Manifest Destiny! This simple phrase enraptured the United States during the late 1800’s, and came to symbolize an era of westward expansion through numerous powerful entities. The expansion can be inspected though many different contextual lenses, but if examined among the larger histories of the United States, this movement can be classified as one of the most influential developments of the post-Civil War period. While very influential to the larger part of American history, the seemingly barbaric methods that were used conquer the western lands and their peoples took physical and economical forms that proved to be a plague upon the West.