Notes on Studying America Before American Studies

NAMING AMERICA

Naming debate: which label to apply to the Atlantic

–Pacific landmass was contentious; Bartolomé de las Casas preferred Columba over America, arguing Vespucci’s account favored by others was self-serving.

The 1507 Waldseemüller

–Ringmann map first publicly used the name “America” for the continent, inspired by Vespucci’s reports, though the map’s geography is imperfect. Waldseemüller later regretted overemphasizing Vespucci; his 1516 Carta Marina omits the term. Nonetheless, the name stuck.

Three properties of the name to note:
1) Narrowing reference over time: initially continental, today often corresponds to the United States; modern scholarship (Chapter 5) seeks to restore its broad territorial sense.
2) European origin and transnational dynamics: naming reflects Europe’s early global reach and interchanges; Kirsten Silva Gruesz proposes a possible Indigenous-origin cue (Amerrique) as an inside-origin account, rather than purely imputed from Europe.
3) Imperialism: the choice of name facilitated European claims and control; Vespucci’s letters illustrate early unequal power dynamics and the trajectory toward colonization.

DREAMING AMERICA

Pre-disciplinary writings reveal America as a dream space, not merely a geography; the term “America” becomes a metaphor for aspiration and desire.
Donne’s early lines frame America as a new-found land tied to imperial ambition and material wealth; even when writers knew the terrain, they cast America as a site of longing and conquest.
Two post

–independence textual foci illustrate shifting meanings: (i) Puritan writings of settlement and godly communities; (ii) accounts aimed at attracting settlers with economic hopes. The broader point is that imagining America has always carried political and material implications.

The chapter cautions against treating early visions as neutral; projections of America influenced outcomes, including exile, punishment, or exclusion for those who failed to meet projected ideals. American studies uses these early imaginaries to uncover origins and costs of national myths.

1) PURITAN VISIONS

The Puritans’ New England project often framed as utopian (saints) but also as dystopian (moral failings). Winthrop’s sermon A Model of Christian Charity urged a transformed, exemplary community: ‘a city upon a hill.’ This exceptionalism persists in American discourse, alongside warnings of downfall.
Early verse and sermons (e.g., Danforth’s and Wigglesworth’s critiques) portray New England as vulnerable to moral corruption and sensual temptations, foreshadowing a tension between ideal promise and social cost.
The Puritan preoccupation with America’s moral trajectory links to later American studies: Perry Miller’s Errand into the Wilderness (1956) and broader themes of how meaning in America is unsettled, contested, and capable of reform or repression.
The Puritan example also shows that projection has material consequences, including punishment for those who diverge from the ideal, foreshadowing contemporary debates (e.g., political rhetoric and inclusion/exclusion).

2) ECONOMIC PROSPECTUSES

John Smith’s A Description of New England (1616) is a prime example of an economic prospectus: a careful regional inventory (harbours, timber, minerals, wildlife) framed as practical information for prospective settlers and investors. It serves as both guide and sales pitch.
The text foregrounds material abundance and survival, turning geography into a buyer’s guide for emigration and settlement. It also includes a prefatory frame that speaks to readers in London and other ports, inviting colonization.
The shift to economic rationality appears in Benjamin Franklin’s Information to Those Who Would Remove to America (1784): a more sober, class-conscious, and trade-oriented portrayal. Franklin warns against “improper Persons” and counters fantastical utopias of easy wealth.
Franklin’s tone also introduces social critique: America as a site of artisanal labor and practical opportunity, but with caveats about race, slavery, and Native peoples. This contrasts with Smith’s abundance-focused text and foreshadows a shift toward social and cultural dimensions in American studies.
Overall, these prospectuses show a move from natural description to socio-economic framing, foreshadowing a discipline concerned with social and cultural America rather than only natural history.

TOWARDS AMERICAN STUDIES

After independence, the United States became a sovereign nation, yet European influence in knowledge production remained strong; a “structure of intellectual inequality” persisted between Europeans and Americans.
University curricula remained heavily tied to Old World models for much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, delaying a fully homegrown national scholarly program. This set the stage for later disciplinary development.
Three early fields are identified as precursors to American studies: geography, history, and literary criticism. These domains laid groundwork for an integrated, cross-disciplinary approach later pursued by American studies.

GEOGRAPHY

Post-independence geographic writing expanded with the nation’s growth, notably after the Louisiana Purchase (1803), when Lewis and Clark mapped vast new territories.
Early geography was popularized in school texts (e.g., Jedidiah Morse) and by female geographers like Emma Willard; these works helped embed geography in national identity.
University geography lagged behind, with Berkeley establishing the first dedicated department in 1898; nevertheless, maps and gazetteers increasingly reflected political biases (e.g., expansion, slavery, secession) rather than neutral space.
Geography’s relevance to American studies lies in its influence on how space and place shape cultural, political, and historical interpretation.

HISTORY

Nineteenth-century historical writing in the United States was often lay-driven and nationalist, with works like Lossing’s A Pictorial History and Hale’s History of the United States shaping public understanding.
Indigenous histories were marginalized; the dominant narrative celebrated territorial expansion and national triumphs, while dispossession and Native experiences were downplayed.
As the century progressed, historical narratives became more fractious, depicting splits and rival camps, foreshadowing a more pluralist, contested historiography in later American studies.
The professionalization of history came with organizations and journals (e.g., Organization of American Historians, Journal of American History), signaling a shift toward scholarly, peer-reviewed national history.

LITERARY STUDIES

Early American literary study faced skepticism about the value of American writing, with English critics often dismissing American authors. Pattee’s appointment as a professor in 1895 marks a milestone in institutionalizing American literature.
Despite initial neglect, Americans produced influential writers and theoretical work, and U.S. universities gradually incorporated American literature into curricula.
The discipline’s early posture reflected broader tensions between national self-perception and European literary standards, a dynamic later engaged by American studies through cross-cutting, interdisciplinary perspectives.

SUMMARY

Before formal American studies, America’s definition as a geographic label narrowed over time, and knowledge was produced in diverse, often amateur forms (poetry, sermons, travel writing).
Three recurring tendencies characterized pre-disciplinary work: amateurism (non-professional scholars and enthusiasts), fluidity of meaning (open to negotiation), and political implications (texts reflect visions of what America should be).
Academic American studies emerged in the mid-20th century as an interdisciplinary program that resisted disciplinary atomization, integrating geography, history, and literary studies to analyze America from multiple angles.