The Federalist: The Federalist (later known as The Federalist Papers) is a collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution. Seventy-seven were published serially in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October of 1787 and August 1788.

The three branches of government: legislative, executive, judiciary 三權分立

What is American Literature?

American Literature: American literature is the literature written or produced in the area of the United States and its preceding colonies. During its early history, America was a series of British colonies on the eastern coast of the present-day United States. Therefore, its literary tradition begins as linked to the broader tradition of English literature. However, unique American characteristics and the breadth of its production usually now cause it to be considered a separate path and tradition.

immigrant

migrate → move的意思

Great Awakening: The term Great Awakening can refer to several periods of religious revival in American religious history. Historians and theologians identify three or four waves of increased religious enthusiasm occurring between the early 18th century and the late 19th century.

Jonathan Edwards: Jonathan Edwards was a Christian preacher, philosopher, and theologian. Edwards "is widely acknowledged to be America's most important and original philosophical theologian," and one of America's greatest intellectuals. Edwards delivered the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", a classic of early American literature, during another revival in 1741, following George Whitefield's tour of the Thirteen Colonies.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God contains brimstone passages like the often-quoted one, “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over a fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked.”

American Revolution: The American Revolution was a political upheaval that took place between 1765 and 1783 during which colonists in the Thirteen American Colonies rejected the British monarchy and aristocracy, overthrew the authority of Great Britain, and founded the United States of America. The American Revolution was the result of a series of social, political, and intellectual transformations in American society, government and ways of thinking.

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense(1776)裡提到管得最少的政府就是最好的政府

最早是Henry David Thoreau 講的”The best government is that which governs least.”  在華人區要說Thomas Paine，美國要說是梭羅

各個時代與相關人物:

Colonial Literature: propaganda, Anne Bradstreet

The Revolutionary period: Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and Rights of man 影響法國大革命

Romanticism: humanism, individuality, emotionality

Benjamin Franklin: 理性年代代表人物，Poor Richard’s Almanack (農民曆)

(廣告) 3句名言: A penny saved is a penny earned. The sleeping fox catches no duck. Time is money.

Washington Irving

Irving became the first American writer of the nineteenth century to achieve an international literary reputation. Also he was the first American who was able to support himself solely through his writing. He is considered one of the “inventors” of the modern short story.

Territorial expansion to the West 西進政策

Manifest destiny: In the 19th century, Manifest Destiny was the widely held belief in the United States that American settlers were destined to expand throughout the continent. Historians have for the most part agreed that there are three basic themes to Manifest Destiny which includes the special virtues of the American people and their institutions, America's mission to redeem and remake the west in the image of agrarian America, an irresistible destiny to accomplish this essential duty.