The Routledge History of Nineteenth-Century America

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Nineteenth Century America ◽  
History Of

Wondrous Depths: Judging the Mind in Nineteenth-Century America

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (03) ◽  
pp. 828-849
Author(s):  
Catherine L. Evans
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
The Self ◽  
Psychological Consequences ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Nineteenth Century America ◽  
Modern Mind ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Mind

Susanna L. Blumenthal’sLaw and the Modern Mind: Consciousness and Responsibility in American Legal Culture(2016) is a history of the self in nineteenth-century America. When judges considered a person’s criminal responsibility or civil capacity in court, they created a body of legal and political thought about the self, society, the economy, and American democracy. This essay uses Blumenthal’s book to explore recent work on law and the mind in Britain and North America, and argues that abstract questions about free will, the self, and the mind were part of the everyday jurisprudence of the nineteenth century. Debates about responsibility were also debates about the psychological consequences of capitalism and the borders of personhood and citizenship at a time of rapid economic, political, and social change.

Useful Objects

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reed Gochberg
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Science And Literature ◽  
Useful Knowledge ◽  
Nineteenth Century America ◽  
Alternative Systems ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Ideas

Useful Objects: Museums, Science, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America explores the debates that surrounded the development of American museums during the nineteenth century. Throughout this period, museums included a wide range of objects, from botanical and zoological specimens to antiquarian artifacts and technological models. Intended to promote “useful knowledge,” these collections generated broader discussions about how objects were selected, preserved, and classified. In guidebooks and periodicals, visitors described their experiences within museum galleries and marveled at the objects they encountered. And in fiction, essays, and poems, writers embraced the imaginative possibilities represented by collections and proposed alternative systems of arrangement. These conversations spanned spheres of American culture, raising deeper questions about how objects are valued—and who gets to decide. Combining literary criticism, the history of science, and museum studies, Useful Objects examines the dynamic and often fraught debates that emerged during a crucial period in the history of museums. As museums gradually transformed from encyclopedic cabinets to more specialized public institutions, many writers questioned who would have access to collections and the authority to interpret them. Throughout this period, they reflected on loss and preservation, raised concerns about the place of new ideas, and resisted increasingly fixed categories. These conversations extended beyond individual institutions, shaping broader debates about the scope and purpose of museums in American culture that continue to resonate today.

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