National consciousness deepened through schooling, press, railroads, and war.
Evidence
Let us suppose that ethnic tensions are best understood within a context of nation-building. The entire span from the 1840s to the 1960s was a time when Americans were elaborating a thickening matrix of national institutions and national culture. National consciousness—that is, an awareness of and attachment to an American identity—penetrated ever more deeply and widely through the regions and peoples of the United States. The creation of a common, compulsory school system, a national press, and a federal postal system was one giant step; the building of a national rail network another. The victory of the Union in the Civil War was a third. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 2038
Categorization
- DEFINE: Higham’s ‘consolidation’ thesis lists concrete institutional levers that built American national identity over a century.
- XREF: connects to: National consciousness forms through language and literature, not only through shared ancestry; Conscription warfare can forge national consciousness among a people — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 117; The nation emerges as a new subject of history distinct from the State — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 158 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Conscription warfare can forge national consciousness among a people
#corroborates(0.85) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 117 - Novels and newspapers supplied the technical means to imagine the nation
#expands(0.80) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 87 - National consciousness forms through language and literature, not only through shared ancestry
#expands(0.75) - Rising national consciousness transformed the state from legal instrument into national instrument
#expands(0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 584 - The nation emerges as a new subject of history distinct from the State
#expands(0.72) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 158