Edward L. Widmer. Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. viii + 290 pp. $29.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-19-510050-1.
Reviewed by William T. Kerrigan
Published on H-SHEAR (November, 1999)
The sobriquet "Young America" appeared 1856, the Republicans would use it in John C. Fre‐ across the pages of magazines, newspapers, and mont's campaign. George Henry Evans, a champi‐ printed pamphlet speeches throughout the 1840s on of workers' rights and free land for the poor and 1850s. Its meaning was ambiguous and multi- adopted the slogan, as did George Francis Train, dimensional then, and subsequent scholarship on an ambitious international capitalist. A group of "The Young America movement" have been quite writers and literary critics centered in New York problematic. Eforts to defne "Young America" as City employed the phrase in their eforts to pro‐ a movement have always reminded me of the fa‐ mote a distinctive American literature; aggressive ble of the fve blind mice crawling over an ele‐ expansionists who sought the acquisition of Cuba, phant. As each mouse explored a diferent part of Canada, and all of Mexico also yoked their cam‐ the Pachyderm's anatomy, each returned with a paigns to the Young American ox. Most of the his‐ radically diferent conclusion as to what the ani‐ torical writing on "Young America" has focused on mal was. References to "Young America" in histor‐ these last two manifestations. In Young America: ical literature seem to be almost as diverse as the The Flowering of Democracy in New York City, Ed‐ blind mice's conclusions. ward Widmer focuses primarily on that city's cul‐ At base, this is because the phrase "Young tural nationalists during the 1840s, but he also America" was associated with a range of diferent discusses their relationship to the expansionist activities in the 1840s and 1850s. The sobriquet Young America which peaked in the early 1850s. "Young America" was occasionally employed by Edward Widmer has produced the best work nativists, but more often it identifed those sympa‐ on Young America in New York City, a book which thetic with the European revolutions of 1848 and supercedes the standard work on the subject, Per‐ the post-revolution refugees. In 1852 "Young ry Miller's The Raven and the Whale. Both Miller America" was attached to Stephen Douglas and a and Widmer focus their works on the small clique younger generation in the Democratic party; in of mostly New York-based writers and critics asso‐ H-Net Reviews ciated with Young America in the 1840s. At the periority of the American political system. core of this group were two men, Evert Duyckinck O'Sullivan himself was a Catholic of Irish descent, and John Louis O'Sullivan, and a stable of justif‐ with personal and family ties to Latin America. ably forgotten writers, but New York's Young Furthermore, New York's Young American expan‐ America circle also included for a time notable sionists as a group were sympathetic to the revo‐ authors like Poe, Melville and Hawthorne. All lutions across Europe, and opposed to the nativist worked toward a common goal--to foster a dis‐ movement which sought to limit non-English im‐ tinctively American literature. Whereas Miller migration. limited his study to New York's Young American While Widmer is to be commended for per‐ writers, Widmer casts a wider net, by linking the suasively demonstrating previously unrecognized activities of New York's literary nationalists to two connections between New York's literary nation‐ other movements of the day--the American Art- alists and those behind the American Art-Union Union, which sought to bring American art to a and Codifcation movements, he overlooks a few wider audience, and the codifcation movement other important Young America activities in New lead by David Dudley Field, who sought to "Ameri‐ York. George Henry Evans, who promoted his free canize" U.S. law. A fnal chapter discusses another land program in a newspaper entitled "Young manifestation of Young America unleashed by the America" (a paper for which literary Young Amer‐ Mexican War: the aggressive campaign for fur‐ ican Parke Godwin also wrote) gets only two brief ther territorial expansion which included calls for mentions. Widmer misreads the signifcance of the United States to take "All-Mexico," flibustering another Young American activity centered in New campaigns intended to bring about the annexa‐ York: the campaign for an international copyright tion of Cuba, and even speculation about the des‐ law. He exaggerates the Anglophobia of the New tiny of Canada. York Young Americans, and interprets the eforts Widmer also provides us with the best short of the Young American-dominated American biography of John L. O'Sullivan, founder and edi‐ Copyright Club as a simple manifestation of this tor of the United States Magazine and Democratic Anglo-phobia. In fact, it is something much more Review, and the man credited with coining the complex. On page 99, Widmer implies that Young phrase "manifest destiny." O'Sullivan's life story is America was critical of Charles Dickens' American a fascinating one, and his infuence on the poli‐ tour, when in fact Young America and Charles tics, diplomacy, and the literature of this period is Dickens were in perfect agreement on the inter‐ generally overlooked. O'Sullivan's disappearance national copyright issue. The reform that Young from the historical record is in part a result of the America sought was to force American publishers paucity of material on his personal life. There are to pay copyright to English authors when they few personal letters remaining--his most visible published their books. Dickens was a favorite legacy is in the pages of the journals and newspa‐ with America's pirating publishers, who were pers he edited. Widmer's biography of O'Sullivan cranking out cheap editions of all of his works is valuable because it flls in many of the details of without paying him a dime. Young America O'Sullivan's life and career, but also because it sought copyright reform for two reasons. First, challenges a common misconception about the they hoped if American publishers were forced to meaning of the phrase "manifest destiny." Wid‐ pay royalties to English authors, as they were mer convincingly shows that O'Sullivan's faith in compelled to do for American works, it would lev‐ the "manifest destiny" of the nation to stretch el the playing feld and give unknown American across the continent was based not on a belief in authors a fghting chance to get published. Sec‐ racial Anglo-Saxonism, but on his belief in the su‐ ond, Young America was asserting the right of all
2 H-Net Reviews authors to survive on the proceeds of their intel‐ and to dispossess Indians, Mexicans, and others. lectual property. Most of New York's Young Ameri‐ The connections between cultural nationalism cans frmly believed that an international copy‐ and aggressive territorial nationalism are more right law would foster a fair and free market for than superfcial, and Widmer's book misleads by literature, and that this market would bring an suggesting the two have little in common. explosion of new American works. O'Sullivan played a central role in both manifesta‐ This second element of the copyright cam‐ tions of Young America, a fact Widmer writes of paign--an emerging faith in the free market to as evidence of his eccentricity and internal con‐ serve the cause of American literature--highlights tradictions. While it is true that Evert Duyckinck another element of the Young America movement and many of the literary Young Americans dis‐ that Widmer overlooks. O'Sullivan, Duyckinck tanced themselves from the Mexican War and and New York's other literary Young Americans other calls for expansion, a celebration of the were weaned on the loco-foco writings of William growth and destiny of the American republic was Leggett, and their early oferings were flled with very much a part of this era of literary national‐ an anti-commercial rhetoric. But as economic op‐ ism. Walt Whitman expressed deep admiration portunity soared in the 1840s, Young Americans for expansionists James K. Polk and Stephen Dou‐ came increasingly to embrace the market econo‐ glas, and Nathaniel Hawthorne's political patrio‐ my. By the 1850s, the phrase "Young America" was tism is evident in his biography of Franklin being used to describe ambitious young entrepre‐ Pierce. Furthermore, many New York and New neurial capitalists. The relationship between the England literary fgures who opposed expansion spread of cultural nationalism in the 1840s, and were more concerned about the extension of slav‐ the embrace of a pro-market ideology is unex‐ ery than they were about expansion itself. plored in this book. Widmer's distinction between Young Ameri‐ Discussion of the territorial expansionists ca's cultural nationalism and territorial expansion who adopted the sobriquet "Young America" is would have been harder to maintain if he had ex‐ relegated to a fnal chapter, and Widmer seems tended his treatment of Young America beyond determined to downplay the connections between New York, to cities like Charleston, New Orleans, the expansionists and the cultural nationalists, go‐ and Cincinnati. Beyond the northeast, he would ing so far as to distinguish them as "Young Ameri‐ have found stronger connections between the cul‐ ca I" and "Young America II." Certainly there are tural and territorial manifestations of Young many important distinctions between the two. America. In other words, Widmer's decision to Many of New York's cultural nationalists were distinguish between Young America I and II is in critical of the war against Mexico, and disassociat‐ part a result of his narrow geographic scope and ed themselves from the term as it became a slo‐ also a refection of modern judgements about gan for expansion. But Widmer's distinction also mid-nineteenth century nationalism. seems to ft too conveniently with our modern Young America: The Flowering of Democracy values. "Young America I" comes to represent all in New York City is an immensely important con‐ that we see as good about the movement--the ef‐ tribution to the history of the early American re‐ fort to foster a more democratic, distinctive Amer‐ public. It advances our understanding of the ican art, literature and law. "Young America II," meaning of "Young America," and is the frst on the other hand, serves to hold all those "na‐ source historians should read if they seek to un‐ tionalistic" activities that we now deem bad--using derstand New York's cultural nationalists in the violence to expand the boundaries of the republic 1840s. Widmer's description of the New York's
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Young Americans is enlightening and engaging, and this book possesses a grace and style all too rare in scholarly works these days. Anyone inter‐ ested in the cultural history of the early republic, the history of New York, or even the diplomacy of the era will fnd this book very useful, and dif‐ cult to put down. Copyright (c) 1999 by H-Net, all rights re‐ served. This work may be copied for non-proft educational use if proper credit is given to the au‐ thor and the list. For other permission, please con‐ tact [email protected].
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Citation: William T. Kerrigan. Review of Widmer, Edward L. Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City. H-SHEAR, H-Net Reviews. November, 1999.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=3605
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