Nationalism in the American Place-Name Cover

Students of the American scene can document the intensity and exuberance of nationalism in the young United States in a surprising variety of ways. The challenge of inventing of what was indeed the first new nation in the modem world and doing so almost instantly within a large, thinly occupied territory created certain opportunities for expressing patriotic fervor that were rare or nonexistent in contemporary Europe or later ventures in nation-state formation. Among these practices perhaps none raises more intriguing geographic and historical questions than the ways in which nationalistic names were bestowed upon all manner of objects, including people, I business firms,2 commercial products, social organizations, highways, bridges, schools, military and naval weaponry, and, most especially, places. In fact, it seems safe to claim that in no other nation, past or present, can we find anything like the great number and frequency of nationalistic place-names to be seen ~n the United States. 3 Let us consider where and when this phenomenon developed and what it may signify.