This paper contrasts and compares the definitions of America's national identity according to Crevecoeur and Franklin in five pages. Two sources are cited in the bibliography.
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Liggins, January 2013 To Use This Report Correctly, Please
The definition and construction of an American national identity is not only something which has occupied
thinkers since the eighteenth century, it is also a perception which has been changed and refined over time as a result of changes in the social philosophy of America itself,
and the way in which its citizens view themselves in relation to their developing culture.
Since for European countries the concept of a single national identity was something which evolved gradually and
could be constantly reinforced by comparison with the identities of other states, there was less of a need to clarify and establish such an identity than there was in the
New World, where identity was not only dependent on the cultural backgrounds of those who constituted the American citizenry, but also on defining the ways in which the American differed
from his immediate forebears.
European cultural influences could not be denied in terms of their importance in the formation of the American national consciousness, but at the same time it was evident
that whatever the elements which had gone into its make-up, the American identity was not simply a slavish re-working of a primarily European melting pot, but something which transcended the