Capitalist values shaped how Americans contrasted their republic with Ottoman despotism
Evidence
American studies scholar Timothy Marr argues that the new republic valorized norms such as chastity, hard work, progressivism, and democracy (associated with the United States), which were counterposed to sensuality, indolence, irrational fatalism, and despotism (associated with the Ottomans). Just as leading lights of the French Enlightenment had denounced Oriental despotism in the lead-up to the French Revolution, the Americans too believed that their republic marked a departure from tradition with an insistence on democracy. Further, capitalist values and ethics (as in the British case discussed in Chapter 1) informed constructions of “us” and “them.” Thus, even though the Ottomans were a distant empire, rhetorically the American nation was constructed in opposition to its despotism and, in this context, Islam was counterposed to Christianity. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 212
Categorization
- XREF: Directly parallels the British case in Chapter 1, where capitalist ethics constructed the Muslim ‘us/them’ — corroborates the vault’s claim that economic system, not just religion, structures Islamophobic self-definition. — connects to: Early America defined its republican identity against imagined Ottoman despotism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 212; Early American elites defined the republic against perceived Ottoman despotism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 211; Americanism is not a new civilisation but an intensified extension of European capitalism — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1162 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- American empire inherited and reformulated European Orientalism after World War II
#corroborates(0.85) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 724 - Americanism is not a new civilisation but an intensified extension of European capitalism
#expands(0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1162 - American capitalism offered European immigrants whiteness as a path to belonging.
#exemplifies(0.78) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 220