Kaplan, “Left Alone with America: The Absence of Empire in the Study of American Culture”/Brown
Amy Kaplan’s article is an introduction to the book Cultures of Unites States Imperialism, which explores “the multiple histories of continental and overseas expansion, conquest, conflict, and resistance” that have impacted the United States’ culture (3). Topics, such as, “European colonization, slavery, westward expansion, overseas intervention, and cold war nuclear power” which may not have been explored in past definitions of American Studies are the subject of exploration in this book (3). Basically, the book looks at ways the United States has tried to dominate the world and the impact this has had internally on our national identity.
Kaplan begins her article with two quotes, which I think are important to the understanding and comprehension of this text. I have reproduced these quotes below.
One of the central themes of American historiography is that there is no American Empire. Most historians will admit, if pressed, that the United States once had an empire. They then promptly insist that it was given away. But they also speak of America as a World Power. –William Appleman Williams, 1955
Through significant and underscored omissions, startling contradictions, heavily nuanced conflicts, through the way writers peopled their work with the sign and bodies of the presence—one can see that a real or fabricated Africanist presence was crucial to their sense of Americanness. –Toni Morrison, 1992
Kaplan relates heavily to Perry Miller’s 1959 preface to Errand into the Wilderness. Kaplan recaps the preface to Miller’s book throughout this article. Kaplan presents the argument that when, as a society, we speak of the United States’ culture, we never consider the impact of it being an empire. Yet, much of the United States being the power it is today is because of the cultures embodied in it. However, the United States is seen as two parts: internationally as a world power and nationally separate.
In this article, Kaplan argues that Miller’s model of American studies remains today and that we still have a lot to learn. Kaplan expands on this idea by also looking at Toni Morrison and noting that culture impacts America as well. While Morrison notes only African history, Kaplan expands noting that all culture impacts America. Although Kaplan does acknowledge that African history is a big part of European and American history. Yet, Kaplan also notes that what we omit from history is important.
This text relates directly to our course through its analysis of Miller.
Kaplan attributes the beginning of American Studies to Miller, noting:
In the 1956 preface Miller recalls how as a college dropout in the 1920s
he boarded an oil tanker for Africa in search of the “adventure” he had missed on the European battlefields of World War I. His perception of the “tawdry” reality of Africa, however, thwarted his romantic expectation of exotic exploits; yet it offered him, as though in compensation, an even more heroic “quest.” With the force of an “epiphany,” while he was unloading drums of oil, “the jungle of central Africa” vouchsafed to him “the pressing necessity for expounding my America to the twentieth century” (3).
Much like the Puritan errand, Miller’s trip to Africa sparked a “beginning of a beginning.” Kaplan notes of Miller in the Congo, “like the Puritans in the wilderness, he found himself “left alone with America” (4).
Miller’s preface argues that to understand a nation one must look at multiple aspects of that nation. He realized this when moving oil in Africa. Kaplan goes beyond Miller stating that the challenge for American Studies is thinking about what we are and where we are among all the nations of the world. We say we are not an empire yet, like an empire, we are one of the great powers and the only great power after the Cold War with Russia. Morrison (in her quote at the top of the page) brings up the idea of what we do not include, which is important too. While we may be a power internationally, culturally we are diverse and not an empire because we do not have one culture or one identity. While we may appear to be an empire on an international level, it is our cultural differences—gender, race, nationality of origin—that makes us not an empire and this influences American Studies.
This article is two-fold: noting Miller’s work in the Congo and his impact on American Studies; and noting that we have a diverse culture which then makes it so that we appear like an empire but really are alone because we are so diverse in all areas. This is why we are “alone with America.”
American Studies is multi-faceted. America is seen as one but also culturally different. Miller was inspired by the wilderness of the Congo, which reminded him of the vast wilderness of the United States for the Puritans. The resources seemed endless. Yet, reality states that resources can be used up. They are not endless, and the multiple cultures making up America play into how these resources are used, too. Thus, Kaplan notes both quotes in the beginning to state that, while we still have much left open in Miller’s view on American Studies, we must also consider culture, like Morrison states. When we consider that America is a collection of nationalities, gender and culture, we can understand how one may feel “left alone with America.”
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