Anglo-Jewry and the Development of American Jewish Life, 1775-1850

AMERICAN political independence, declared in 1776, was followed by decades of cultural dependence on Great Britain. Sydney Smith’s famous taunt in 1820, ^”In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book ? or goes to an American play ? or looks at an American picture or statue ?” evoked small response, for in truth even Americans were reading British books and going to British plays. In the decades between 1775 and 1850, however, Americans began to achieve a national culture independent of that of Britain. It is impossible to fix a date in which the balance of cultural payments shifted to favour America; according to many Europeans, it never has. In the major areas of American cultural life, however, the six decades between 1790 and 1850 may be noted as the years in which Americans, proud of their political independence, began to seek their destiny as a

Written by

J. Jacob Neusner

Published in

Volume 18

1953

Other articles within the volume

• Portuguese Jews in Jacobean London
• Sir George Jessel, 1824-1883
• REDCLIFFE NATHAN SALAMAN, F.R.S., M.D. (President of the Jewish Historical Society of England, 1920-22)
• ALBERT MONTEFIORE HYAMSON (President of the Jewish Historical Society of England, 1945-7; Honorary Editor of Publications, 1944-54)
• Medieval Sources for Anglo-Jewish History: the Problem of Publication
• Anglo-Jewry and the Development of American Jewish Life, 1775-1850
• Eighteenth Century Anglo-Jewry in and around Richmond, Surrey
• Anglo-Jewish Architects, and Architecture in the 18th and 19th Centuries
• Anglo-Jewish Silver
• Francis Town of Bond Street (1738-1826) and his family: With Further Notes on Early Anglo-Jewish Artists
• Israel Zangwill
• Some English Examples of the Mediaeval Representation of Church and Synagogue
• Don Pacifico,
• Jewish History and Archives
• Jacob Waley (1818-1873)
• Preface