000			02927cam a2200397 i 4500
001			2017003004
003			DLC
005			20190729110926.0
008			170207s2017 maua b 001 0 eng
010			_a 2017003004
020			_a9780674976498
020			_a0674976495
042			_apcc
043			_an-us---
040			_aMH/DLC _beng _erda _cMH _dDLC _dMvI
050	0	0	_aHM1161 _b.B73 2017
082	0	0	_a973 _223
100	1		_aBramen, Carrie Tirado, _d1964-
245	1	0	_aAmerican niceness : _ba cultural history / _cCarrie Tirado Bramen.
264		1	_aCambridge, Massachusetts ; _aLondon, England : _bHarvard University Press, _c[2017]
300			_a368 pages : _billustrations ; _c25 cm
336			_atext _2rdacontent
337			_aunmediated _2rdamedia
338			_avolume _2rdacarrier
520			_aDespite Fanny Trollope's dismissal of Americans as tobacco chewing, patriotic boors, travelers have a long history of commenting on American friendliness. Alexis De Tocqueville observed that their sociability made Americans more akin to the French than the "unfriendly disposition of the English." And Rudyard Kipling remarked, "it is perfectly impossible to go to war with these people, whatever they may do. They are much too nice." Although it often goes unnamed as a pattern of behavior, niceness pervades the assumptions, discourses, and the everyday conduct of and about Americans. But how and when did Americans become associated with being nice? Carrie Tirado Bramen argues that in the nineteenth century niceness became an indispensable part of a democratic personality that was friendly and accessible, free from the Old World snobbery of a class-ridden society. It defined the geist of a white settler nation based on transience and cohered through a common affect that Bramen calls "manifest cheerfulness." American niceness has figured in a national fantasy of American exceptionalism, based neither exclusively nor even primarily on military might and economic prowess, but on more mundane attributes such as friendliness. The distinctiveness of Americans has been largely shaped through the language of sociality and the importance of likability.-- _cProvided by publisher
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505	0		_aIntroduction: American niceness and the democratic personality -- Indian giving and the dangers of hospitality -- Southern niceness and the slave's smile -- The Christology of niceness -- Feminine niceness -- The likable empire from Plymouth Rock to the Philippines.
650		0	_aFriendship _zUnited States _xHistory.
650		0	_aKindness _zUnited States _xHistory.
650		0	_aNational characteristics, American _xPublic opinion _xHistory.
650		0	_aVisitors, Foreign _zUnited States _xAttitudes _xHistory.
948			_au815515
949			_aHM1161 .B73 2017 _wLC _c1 _hEY8Z _i33039001428811
596			_a1
903			_a36165
999			_c36165 _d36165