The Rites of Assent

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The Rites of Assent examines the cultural strategies through which 'America' served as a vehicle simultaneously for diversity and cohesion, fusion and fragmentation. Taking an ethnographic, cross-cultural approach, The Rites of Assent traces the meanings and purposes of 'America' back to the colonial typology of mission, and specifically (in chapters on Puritan rhetoric, Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards, and the movement from Revival to Revolution) to the legacy of early New England."A terrifying and strange America is revealed in these remarkable essays. Bercovitch has changed the map of American studies." -- Richard Sennett, NYU"The Rites of Assent may be not only Sacvan Bercovitch's most accessible book, but his most important as well. In it Bercovitch applies his massively influential earlier analysis of the Puritan jeremiad, the Puritan self, and the ideology of American liberal consensus to a broader range of American literature and culture. Superbly written and powerful in its sustained critique, The Rites of Assent will be required reading for students of American culture." -- Gerald Graff, University of Chicago