
Pastoral and Politics in the Old South by John M. Grammer (Louisiana State University Press, 1997)
Louisiana State University Press, 1997
Almost from the time of their first discoveries, Europeans projected images of liberation and regeneration onto the New World. An extensive literature celebrated the Americas as lands free from avarice, luxury, corruption, decadence, and sinfulness. This literary tradition, based on a combination of biblical and classical sources, in time also helped Americans to envision themselves as a people unencumbered by the burdens of history that tormented a languishing Old World.