American Literature: 1700 - 1820

While reading the introduction for American Literature 1700 through 1820, I was excited to see that the text would be covering more topics that I found interesting. With America now a country with some history behind it, the American people began seeing themselves as actual Americans and began to identify with their country rather than with England.

I thought that it was interesting to read that during the Enlightenment, a sense of self determination was beginning to take hold. This is where our "American dream" comes from -- working hard and starting from the bottom and moving up. I also like to read about how there is a switch on emphasis of religion to reason; focusing on science and psychology. Along with that, there was no longer one way of thinking about things. Now there was many perspectives to hear.