ABSTRACT
The United States went through a period of self-identification in the nineteenth century. Continuing a program begun with the Revolution, intellectuals worked in earnest at throwing off the influence of old European standards. Americans were the New Adam in the Eden of the New World, taking on the challenges of the future without the dusty baggage of Old World sensibilities.1 Walt Whitman wrote, 'you shall no longer take things at second or third hand ... nor look through the eyes of the dead ... you shall listen to all sides and filter them for yourself.'2
