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The Way of Improvement Leads Home Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early America /
The Way of Improvement Leads Home traces the short but fascinating life of Philip Vickers Fithian. Born to Presbyterian grain-growers in rural New Jersey, he was never quite satisfied with the agricultural life he seemed destined to inherit. Fithian longed for something more- to improve himself in a...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Philadelphia [Pa.] :
University of Pennsylvania Press,
2008.
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| Series: | Early American studies.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: |
Full text (Wentworth users only) |
| Local Note: | ProQuest Ebook Central |
| Summary: | The Way of Improvement Leads Home traces the short but fascinating life of Philip Vickers Fithian. Born to Presbyterian grain-growers in rural New Jersey, he was never quite satisfied with the agricultural life he seemed destined to inherit. Fithian longed for something more- to improve himself in a revolutionary world that was making upward mobility possible. Fithian is best known for the diary that he wrote in 1773-74 while working as a tutor at Nomini Hall, the Virginia plantation of Robert Carter, and his role as a Revolutionary War chaplain. From the villages of New Jersey, Fithian was able to participate indirectly in the eighteenth-century republic of letters- a transatlantic intellectual community. Participation required a commitment to self-improvement that demanded a belief in the Enlightenment values of human potential and social progress. He constantly struggled to reconcile this quest for a cosmopolitan life with his love of home. It was the people, the religious culture, and the very landscape of his "native sod" that continued to hold Fithian's affections. |
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| Item Description: | Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph. |
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (278 p.). |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (p. [219]-255) and index. |
| ISBN: | 0812206398 9780812206395 |
| Language: | English. |
| Source of Description, Etc. Note: | Description based on print version record. |