Rewriting American Identity: The Eighteenth-Century Americanizations of George Fisher’s Instructor and Sarah Trimmer’s Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature

Before and after the American Revolution, revised imprints of British works claiming to be adapted for American audiences appeared in the British North American colonies. The essay suggests that collating ‘Americanized’ reprints against their source texts can be a useful metric for determining how A...

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Main Author: Jessica C. Linker
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Firenze University Press 2025-07-01
Series:Journal of Early Modern Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/bsfm-jems/article/view/16525
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author Jessica C. Linker
author_facet Jessica C. Linker
author_sort Jessica C. Linker
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description Before and after the American Revolution, revised imprints of British works claiming to be adapted for American audiences appeared in the British North American colonies. The essay suggests that collating ‘Americanized’ reprints against their source texts can be a useful metric for determining how Anglo-Americans perceived themselves to be different from counterparts in Great Britain, as well as how these beliefs evolved over time. This is addressed through case studies of reprints of George Fisher’s Instructor and Sarah Trimmer’s Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature, both popular instructional texts. Finally, the essay attempts to reimagine revised reprints as translations of national and local culture, if not of language.
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spelling doaj-art-e55a17ee006649dba3efbab8e4a9e8922025-08-20T03:32:37ZengFirenze University PressJournal of Early Modern Studies2279-71492025-07-011417919510.36253/jems-2279-7149-1652515362Rewriting American Identity: The Eighteenth-Century Americanizations of George Fisher’s Instructor and Sarah Trimmer’s Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of NatureJessica C. LinkerBefore and after the American Revolution, revised imprints of British works claiming to be adapted for American audiences appeared in the British North American colonies. The essay suggests that collating ‘Americanized’ reprints against their source texts can be a useful metric for determining how Anglo-Americans perceived themselves to be different from counterparts in Great Britain, as well as how these beliefs evolved over time. This is addressed through case studies of reprints of George Fisher’s Instructor and Sarah Trimmer’s Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature, both popular instructional texts. Finally, the essay attempts to reimagine revised reprints as translations of national and local culture, if not of language.https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/bsfm-jems/article/view/16525american identitygenderreprintssciencetranslation
spellingShingle Jessica C. Linker
Rewriting American Identity: The Eighteenth-Century Americanizations of George Fisher’s Instructor and Sarah Trimmer’s Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature
Journal of Early Modern Studies
american identity
gender
reprints
science
translation
title Rewriting American Identity: The Eighteenth-Century Americanizations of George Fisher’s Instructor and Sarah Trimmer’s Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature
title_full Rewriting American Identity: The Eighteenth-Century Americanizations of George Fisher’s Instructor and Sarah Trimmer’s Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature
title_fullStr Rewriting American Identity: The Eighteenth-Century Americanizations of George Fisher’s Instructor and Sarah Trimmer’s Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature
title_full_unstemmed Rewriting American Identity: The Eighteenth-Century Americanizations of George Fisher’s Instructor and Sarah Trimmer’s Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature
title_short Rewriting American Identity: The Eighteenth-Century Americanizations of George Fisher’s Instructor and Sarah Trimmer’s Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature
title_sort rewriting american identity the eighteenth century americanizations of george fisher s instructor and sarah trimmer s easy introduction to the knowledge of nature
topic american identity
gender
reprints
science
translation
url https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/bsfm-jems/article/view/16525
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