The Rural Idyll?

The previous chapter provided an analysis of the seminal texts that laid the foundation for the narrative that has come to define the key features of the American national identity. The discussion of these texts demonstrated how the values of the confident English middle-class and gentry that were ushered into the mainstream of English culture after the Glorious Revolution (1688–1689) inspired the authors of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to propose a more radical vision of society. The new vision was to be free of social hierarchy and of the paternalistic respect for the institution of monarchy. Chapter 3 will examine the figurative motif of the wholesome and prosperous life on an American farm as the key to understanding the notion of the pursuit of Happiness, which became a fundamental component of the narrative asserting the positive nature of American life.