GoingToMeet

The meaning of America to those beyond its borders has rarely been the subject of such passionate and global debate as it has been in the past seven years. If we look to the long nineteenth century, however, the idea of America in British culture suggests that there is a lively pre-history of competing and opposed notions of the emergent republic. From the new world of revolution, individual liberty, democracy and freedom to the home of plutocracy and Philistinism; from avatar of the mechanical city to the last hope of utopias in the wilderness, America emerged, and continued to accrete meanings as diverse as its landscape. The conference aims to broaden our understanding of the transatlantic relationship, tracing the history of the ideological contest over the idea of America in the long nineteenth century – a history that has been fundamental to the construction of British political identities since the era of revolutions. The conference programme has been designed to bring all participants into a dialogue concerning the history of three political ideas central to the event: democracy; liberalism; citizenship. It brings together a team of international scholars from the disciplines of the history of ideas, political history, art history, English literature and American studies.