Early America defined its republican identity against imagined 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

• ADDENDUM: Another instance of the class/identity signaling pattern from my immodesty piece — here the ‘us/them’ construction ties capitalist work ethic and chastity to the republic itself, exactly the mechanism by which dress morality got nationalized.
• XREF: connects to: Early American elites defined the republic against perceived Ottoman despotism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 211; Capitalist values shaped how Americans contrasted their republic with Ottoman despotism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 212; Ottomans were seen as a political threat rather than a religious one — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 76 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Early American elites defined the republic against perceived Ottoman despotism #corroborates (1.00) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 211
• Capitalist values shaped how Americans contrasted their republic with Ottoman despotism #expands (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 212
• Ottomans were seen as a political threat rather than a religious one #qualifies (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 76
• Philhellenism perpetuated Western hostility to the Turk #expands (0.75) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 630