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Key Quote: “The revolution enables the Unions’ citizens to behind making their history, but the history that they made was often the history that others were willing to let them make” (p.2).
Key Terms: “Model Treaty,” (1), “Struggle for Dominion over others,” (4), “Peace = Key features of European empires,” (5), “Liberationist events through globalization of power,” (7), “entangled nation,” (10)
In Among the Powers of the Earth, Gould centralizes his argument American Revolution is founded on the diplomacy and political views of European Nations. Specifically, that America required a formed nation modeled off of European powers to become recognized and accepted on the globalized geopolitical scale. Further, Gould divides the forming United States into regional neighborhoods. Gould cartographically shows, the Northern Region, the Gulf Region, and its maritime borders required the law of nations to become dominate and effectively show dominion’s interactions with neighbors. Gould points to America creating an ‘entangled nation’ which describes the mirrored European diplomacy while striving to become a treaty-worthy nation working with others in the trade.
Gould covers enough time to effectively make his point, by spanning his argument over a seventy-year period. Additionally, it allows Gould to connect our wars (French and Indian War) with European conflicts (Seven Years War), thus furthering his ‘American models European empire and power’ to solidify our place at the globalizing nations grown-ups table. America using both the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God to separate us from the European powers of the earth and create individual liberty provides us an advantage in furthering dominion/sovereignty. The geographic distance provided distinct opportunity to create a unique space, apart from Europe. I made new connections with the current estate to recent foreign policy affairs. This book assists the reader in discovering that American continues be to challenged with international legalities and how we keep the peace, yet defend out sovereignty we built when the Declaration of Independence replaced the Articles of Confederation.
While I believe that economic and social advancement and development lenses are equally important within this time frame, the legal angle provides the architecture to which the other lenses connect. Gould creates a strong case for re-evaluation on the collective memory of America’s founding. He argues that field scholars often pay too much attention to the American North (p.8). Missing vital neighborhood’s where our Nation’s new sovereignty and liberties, field scholars cannot reclaim and reassert the collective memory of our direct neighborly interactions (the Gulf is pertinent to illustrate this point as we were protecting the Spanish attempting to further their northern boundaries). Pekka Hämäläinen gives the Comanche tribe agency; I feel that Gould is seeking to give back America’s agency by redefining how we examine the American Revolution. This is done not only by reviewing the legalities of a new nation but its interactions mirroring its ‘bigger brother’ the European powers, allowing our pursuit of liberty and freedoms through developing sovereignty.