In one ofCommon Senses most ringing phrases, Thomas Paine declared it"e;absurd"e; for"e;a continent to be perpetually governed by an island."e; Such powerful words, coupled with powerful ideas, helped spur the United States to independence.

InThe Nation's Nature, James D. Drake examines how a relatively small number of inhabitants of the Americas, huddled along North Americas east coast, came to mentally appropriate the entire continent and to think of their nation as America. Drake demonstrates how British North American colonists participation in scientific debates and imperial contests shaped their notions of global geography. These ideas, in turn, solidified American nationalism, spurred a revolution, and shaped the ratification of the Constitution.

Winner of the Walker Cowen Memorial Prize for an outstanding work of scholarship in eighteenthcentury studies