This collection of multidisciplinary essays and book reviews is intended to contribute to a history of ideas about self-conscious quests for United States national identity, particularly during the 1910s and 1920s. In light of new understandings about the writing of history, it is important to draw attention to the term “American” when applied to the United States as the sole representative of the Americas. However much we recognize the broader issues raised in its use, the term remains applicable and used in these essays. The topic and time period were influenced by areas of our own research in art history. Although the recent literature has expanded, much more attention is needed, particularly outside the parameters of the “modern” discourse surrounding developments in European art, architecture and design to subsequently include the United States’ abundant visual culture in all its depth and diversity. The examples we investigate concern illustration, fashion, design, and historiography, in addition to “high art”. These art related articles combine with studies in the fields of anthropology, history, musicology, philosophy and political science. This multidisciplinary approach promises a greater scope and understanding of the goal of self-definition during a complex period in American history, often misunderstood because of sweeping generalizations and oversimplifications in the literature.

Our aim is not to present an authoritative account of the period, but rather to encourage a further inquiry, not only for the time in question, but to our present historical moment. Rethinking the way we discuss “American” history and plotting out narratives of national identity help us to grasp issues pertaining to what it means to be an “American” since September 11, 2001. At the recent Islamic North American Annual Conference, Akbar Ahmed, Islamic Studies Chair at American University, asked how scholars could encourage the idea of a dialogue between Islam and the United States. He stressed the symbolism contained in images that shape concepts and ideas and their role in repairing the damage that exists between these two cultures. Might not a reflection upon the past set the stage for how we want to define ourselves now as a nation?

The United States during the late 1910s and 1920s held great promise for the future even as it dealt with issues that we confront today. Heightened patriotism, political and economic dominion, xenophobia, immigrant deportation, censorship, infringements of civil liberties, tensions between nature and technology, and securing a role in the global community similarly framed the period during and immediately following World War I. Against this back drop individuals embraced the country’s diversity, challenged injustice, respected the past and fostered creative and economic growth in the search for defining national forms of expression.

The articles are arranged in chronological order, albeit loosely, not because this is the best way to write a history, but because the essays are incomplete as a representative example, making a thematic approach misleading. Rather the selections lend themselves to the tracking of patterns, which could prove helpful in mapping relationships for further study.
In ”Refracting History: Ives and Emerson and the Nineteenth-Century European Tradition in America”, Christopher Bruhn examines the field of art music through Charles Ives, whose major compositions span the 1910s. Although aspiring composers typically studied in Europe, Ives chose to remain in this country, where he attended Yale. American aesthetics in the form of ragtime, hymnals, and marching band tunes join with European traditions to create a vibrant new sound. In his music, Ives, who was conscious of his American identity, is compared to Emerson in their mutual goal of Americanizing European models. Bruhn focuses on Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2, “Concord, Mass., 1840-1860” whose four movements are named after Transcendental writers – Emerson, Hawthorne, The Alcotts and Thoreau. Perhaps conceived as early as 1909 and completed by 1920, the sonata indicates the continued relevance of nature to the American experience, while at the same time embracing the modern in American vernacular music.

Anne Woo-Sam’s article, “Americanizing Californians: Americanization in California from the Progressive Era through the Red Scare”, focuses on the California immigration program set up in 1913. This article highlights the importance of regional studies to arrive at a fuller understanding of national identity. In the past, scholars of immigration history tended to focus on the city of New York, but The Commission of Immigration in Housing (CCIH), spearheading the state of California’s program, has a history of its own. Woo-Sam illuminates the “culturally liberal” aspects of CCIH efforts to shape new Americans as well as instruct native-born citizens in their duties toward would-be citizens. Not only does the treatment of immigrants have a direct parallel to today’s circumstances, but in addition, CCIH directives helped shape a favorable U.S. image abroad.

“A Crisis of Identity: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915” by Susan Luftschein examines the subject of international expositions, which historically have asserted the interests and technology of nations. Intended to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal, this fair, which was held in San Francisco, represented U.S. technological prowess based on the engineering achievement embodied in the canal. Ironically, even as World War I loomed large, the official theme was global peace and harmony. Luftschein notes contrasting styles and iconography in the fair’s art, architecture and design that suggest a crisis in U.S. identity on the cusp of dramatic political, intellectual, cultural and economic changes. This article gives us pause to consider the power of visual culture to influence perceptions about being American.

In “Modern American Fashion Design American Indian Style”, Mary Donahue explores the Americanization of design through the paradigm of fashion. This article examines the conception of an American fashion in response to the erosion of ties with Paris as a result of the war. Focusing on the alliance between New York museums and the feminine apparel industry, beginning around 1917, the article brings the business, economic and creative side of design into a history of national identity. Native American art formed an important part of New York collections. In analyzing their role in shaping an American fashion we meet with the concurrent and ongoing practice of white people dressing up as Indians in a search for true “Americanness”.

Antoinette Galotola’s “Expanding The American Experience: The Liberator 1918-1924” explores the American radical experience through a study of the graphic art and editorial policy of the Liberator, a left-wing American monthly. The artists, guided by a deeply committed social consciousness primarily preserved the American realist tradition in order to effectively communicate to the masses. It raises important issues that shaped the period, which include the artists’ response to social and political events immediately following World War I, the often overlooked significance of magazines, journals and newspapers to influence the general public, and the redefinition of American identity in response to international political events, most notably the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

In “John Dewey’s Philosophy, American-Style 1910-1929: On How Philosophy Was Made American”, Jonathan Lang shows that the philosopher John Dewey reflected upon problems of moral and social life in a way regarded by him and subsequent scholars as distinctly home-grown. Dewey was extremely conscious of being American and his thinking was guided by principles of relatedness among the diverse peoples comprising the U.S. In contrast to the hierarchies informing ethical models of European origin, he aimed at healing relationships through “intelligence” characterized by observation, theorizing and experimentation, in keeping with the contemporary priority of science and social consciousness. Lang wonders if we can get back to a vision of democracy embraced by Dewey when faced with the wave of patriotism, which steers us away from serious problems of difference, labor and the environment.

“Fifteen Years After: Matthew Baigell’s ‘American Art and National Identity; the 1920s’ “ by Jane Necol revisits a seminal article in American art historical scholarship. Necol discusses Baigell’s overview of certain tendencies and ideas in the art world motivated by the goal of developing an American aesthetic. While acknowledging Baigell’s contribution to a period and topic until recently largely disregarded by historians of American art, she calls attention to the limits posed by Baigell at a time when new scholarship was well advanced. Necol reminds us that issues of national identity far exceeded a white male perspective and that “America” constituted more than the United States. This article sheds light not only on the 1910s and 1920s, but also on current thinking concerning an intellectual history of U.S. national identity.

This project benefited from the encouragement, insights and editing of Jonathan Lang (see essay and book review in this issue).