American Studies Tagline: a visual historiography of an evolving discipline

Drag the slider to visualize the frequency of words from canonical texts included in Lucy Maddox's Locating American Studies: the Evolution of a Discipline.

1964: History and the Intellectual: Uses of a Usable Past

Warren I. Susman

adam adaptation admired alienated architecture audiences bancroft beginnings brooks capitalism characteristically christ christian discover economic eliot elite emerson epics existential fact frontier fundamental gospel ideology inquiry intellectuals intelligently lewis millennialist mythic optimistic outline parkman pessimistic philosophies puritan reflecting reinforcement renaissance resort retreat revival revivalist sciences shaped significantly stability student study tensions traditionally transcendentalists trappings true truth turner twentieth validity values van war williams yankee

1975: Blackface Minstrelsy and Jacksonian Ideology

Alexander Saxton

accessible african antislavery appropriate audiences blackface borrowings broadway caricatures chinese christy constructs dandy democratic elite emmett emotional england european fact family fashionable foster francisco frontier generate gentry hostility humanists ideology indian informs intellectuals jacksonian love marx minstrel minstrelsy mose nigger northern permissiveness plantation popularity reconstruct republican ridicule san sentimental shaped slavery slaves southern specifying stephen study themes true twain typically values verses war york

1976: The Republican Mother: Women and the Enlightenment - An American Perspective

Linda Kerber

adam audiences beginnings blackface christy compact condorcet contemplated deferential defining democratic dependence education egalitarian emmett enlightenment essay fact family fashionable formulation free frontier generate husbands ideology informs intellectuals invented jacksonian literal locke marx masculine minstrel minstrelsy montesquieu mose motherhood nigger northern paradoxical philosophes plantation politician popularity radical reconstruct reinforced republican rousseau shaped slavery slaves sons sophie study superior themes theorists treatise war whig york

1979: "Paradigm Dramas" in American Studies: A Cultural and Institutional History of the Movement

Gene Wise

academy americanists anthropology articulate asa blackface consensus convention corporate currents david davis disciplines essay european fact family free generate harvard henry humanistic influential institutional integrating intellectual interdisciplinary john journal kelly leo marx mechling metaphor miller minnesota minstrel minstrelsy nash paradigm parrington penn pennsylvania quarterly radical republican robert rousseau san scholarly science seminar seventies shaped smith students teaching temper twentieth university war william yale york

1981: Melodramas of Beset Manhood: How Theories of American Fiction Exclude Women Authors

Nina Baym

adam americanists anthropology believable beset canon chase consensus convention currents davis defining disciplines essay essence excellence exclude fact family free gender generate harvard henry hester humanistic influential institutional integrating intellectual james john manhood marx melodramas metaphor miller minstrel nash novelists paradigm parrington protagonist quarterly radical richard robert romance rousseau scholarly science smith students teaching trilling true univ university values virgin war wilderness william york

1981: The Utopian Impulse in Popular Literature: Gothic Romances and "Feminist" Protest

Janice Radway

agrees antagonist aristocratic assertion beset coded conceptual confrontations conservative constructions convention defining demonstrates domination editors essay fact family fawcett feminine feminism feminist foil free fulfillment gender generate genre gothic henry heroine holt independence institutional intellectual legitimate love manhood melodramas modem nonetheless oppositions parrington phyllis prompt publishers quarterly refuses romances specificity study suggesting traits true univ university values varies victoria virgin whitney william writer york

1987: Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance

Houston A. Baker, Jr.

adams african articulate british collections concluding convention defining definitions deformation demonstrates devotion discursive domination dubois economic editors education essay expressive fact family feminine foil free gender generate gothic harlem heroine huggins independence institutional intellectual lewis liberation love mastery minstrel modem modernism negro problematic quarterly refuses renaissance romances scholarly southern space specificity spokespersons strategies study subsequent suggesting trilling united univ university varies war washington york

1990: Listening to Learn and Learning to Listen: Popular Culture, Cultural Theory, and American Studies

George Lipsitz

argues conceptual constituted contested contexts contextualism contextualist crisis critique david deconstruction defining differing disciplines discourse economy education emergence essay ethnicity european explorations fundamental gender generate gothic grounding harlem henry heroine historicization ideology intellectual interpretive marxism methodologies michael modernism poetics premises presumed privileging problematics quarterly radical renaissance representation rests scholarly sciences sociology struggles students subjectivity suggesting texts textualism textualist theorists united univ university war york

1992: Cultural Locations: Positioning American Studies in the Great Debate

Alice Kessler-Harris

argues conceptual constituted construct contextualism correctness critique curriculum david deconstruction defining democratic differing disciplines discourse diversity economy education emergence essay ethnicity european explorations feminist fragmentation fundamental gender generate ideology incorporate intellectual interpretive john methodologies michael modernism multiculturalism myths perspectives poetics premises presumed problematics quarterly radical representation rests scholarly sciences shaping struggles students subjectivity suggesting synthesis texts textualism textualist unified united university war western york

1993: Community, Patriarchy and Individualism: The Politics of Chicano History and the Dream of Equality

Ramon A. Gutierrez

adelaida almaguer angeles anglo argues aztec barrio bcnitez calif castillo chicana chicano colonialism construct daughters defining del differing domination economy eds education essay ethnicity european explorations feminist gender generate ibid ideology immigrants intellectual interpretive journal latinas lesbian liberation love malinche mexican moraga multiculturalism norma oppression postmodernism quarterly quotation radical raza rechy san sexuality spanish struggles students subjectivity texts themes tina united university war york

1996: Homosex Changes: Race, Cultural Geography, and the Emergence of the Gay

Kevin J. Mumford

african angeles anglo calif castillo chicago chicana chicano clubs constituted construct daughters defining del discourse eds education emergence essay explorations feminist freudianism gender generate harlem heterosexual homosexual ideology influenced interaction interpretive inversion invert investigator journal lesbians love malinche margins mexican moraga negro neighborhoods observer patrons privileges quarterly radical reformers shaped sociology spaces speakeasies students subculture subjectivity tan texts themes thurman united university war york

1996: The Transformation of Culture: Three Chinese Views of America

K. Scott Wong

african asian castillo chicago chicana chicano china chinese clubs confucian construct daughters discourse education elite equality essay explorations feminist francisco gender generate george harlem homosexual huang ideology ignorant immigrants influenced intellectuals interaction invert investigator japan japanese labor lesbians liang malinche margins mexican observer patrons perceptions privileges quarterly revealing rooted san speakeasies students superiority texts thurman united university values war washington western worldview york yung

Credits and Disclaimers

Source articles all appeared in Lucy Maddox's Locating American Studies anthology, and were analyzed by an algorithm to create the visualization's weighting of words. Articles were originally published in American Quarterly. This visualization was created June 2007 by Dave Lester.
The tagline tool was originally created by Chirag Mehta, 2 Nov. 2006. Its text, algorithm, and design is copyrighted to Chirag Mehta, and licensed under Creative Commons License 2.5.
The dynamic slider control is copyrighted to Erik Arvidsson, 2002. A later version of the slider has been released under the Apache v2 License.
A PHP port of the Porter Stemming Algorithm written by Richard Heyes was used to find root words among the articles for purposes of visualization.