LEADER 04274nam 2200709Ia 450 001 9910462634503321 005 20211217005210.0 010 $a0-8122-0345-3 024 7 $a10.9783/9780812203455 035 $a(CKB)2670000000418340 035 $a(EBL)3442221 035 $a(SSID)ssj0001035909 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11662582 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0001035909 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)11041547 035 $a(PQKB)11665088 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3442221 035 $a(OCoLC)609082389 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse26832 035 $a(DE-B1597)449161 035 $a(OCoLC)1013938411 035 $a(OCoLC)1037935699 035 $a(OCoLC)1041985656 035 $a(OCoLC)1046611863 035 $a(OCoLC)1047037664 035 $a(OCoLC)1049627644 035 $a(OCoLC)1054881425 035 $a(OCoLC)979580420 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780812203455 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3442221 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10748780 035 $a(EXLCZ)992670000000418340 100 $a20130903d2008 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurnn#---|u||u 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aBeyond the farm$b[electronic resource] $enational ambitions in rural New England /$fJ.M. Opal 210 $aPhiladelphia $cUniversity of Pennsylvania Press$dc2008 215 $a1 online resource (280 p.) 225 0 $aEarly American studies 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 0 $a0-8122-2156-7 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $tFront matter --$tContents --$tPrologue: In Search of Ambition --$tIntroduction: Ambition and the American Founding --$t1. Finding Independence --$t2. Creating Commerce --$t3. Opening Households --$t4. Exciting Emulation --$t5. Seeking Livelihoods --$t6. Pursuing Distinction --$tEpilogue: Worlds Gained and Lost --$tList of Abbreviations --$tNotes --$tIndex 330 $aDuring the first half-century of American independence, a fundamental change in the meaning and morality of ambition emerged in American culture. Long stigmatized as a dangerous passion that led people to pursue fame at the expense of duty, ambition also raised concerns among American Revolutionaries who espoused self-sacrifice. After the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and the creation of the federal republic in 1789, however, a new ethos of nation-making took hold in which ambition, properly cultivated, could rescue talent and virtue from the parochial needs of the family farm. Rather than an apology for an emerging market culture of material desire and commercial dealing, ambition became a civic project-a concerted reply to the localism of provincial life. By thus attaching itself to the national self-image during the early years of the Republic, before the wrenching upheavals of the Industrial Revolution, ambitious striving achieved a cultural dominance that future generations took for granted. Beyond the Farm not only describes this transformation as a national effort but also explores it as a personal journey. Centered on the lives of six aspiring men from the New England countryside, the book follows them from youthful days full of hope and unrest to eventual careers marked by surprising success and crushing failure. Along the way, J. M. Opal recovers such intimate dramas as a young man's abandonment by his self-made parents, a village printer's dreams of small-town fame, and a headstrong boy's efforts to both surpass and honor his family. By relating the vast abstractions of nation and ambition to the everyday milieus of home, work, and school, Beyond the Farm reconsiders the roots of American individualism in vivid detail and moral complexity. 410 0$aEarly American Studies 606 $aRural population$zNew England$y18th century 606 $aAmbition$xSocial aspects$zNew England$xHistory$y18th century 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aRural population 615 0$aAmbition$xSocial aspects$xHistory 676 $a974.03 700 $aOpal$b J. M$01041143 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910462634503321 996 $aBeyond the farm$92464466 997 $aUNINA