The Race for America

“The Race for America makes an original contribution at the intersection of two flourishing academic fields: hemispheric American studies and studies of the Black Atlantic. . . . Thanks to its nuanced interpretations, its extensive research, and its examination of non-traditional literary forms such as pamphlets, newspapers, and convention proceedings, [the book] provides a significant addition to our understanding of Black internationalist thought, as well as of the sway of Manifest Destiny during times of heated domestic debate, both then and now.”—American Literary History

“Bold, ambitious, [and] compelling. . . . [T]his book succeeds in its aim of providing a ‘counterhistory of hemispheric development apart from the US-American neocolonial dominion’ (27). Historians of Black nationalism, diasporic thought, and Manifest Destiny and its discontents will all be grateful for the book’s contributions and provocations.”—Journal of the Civil War Era

“By establishing lines of continuity between US nationalist claims and Black internationalist politics, Boutelle makes an important contribution that substantially complicates a sometimes too-easy celebration of Black diasporic community making. . . . [A]n exciting intervention that looks beyond the familiar geographies and lineages of Black internationalist politics to recover a once vital—and still moving—effort to envision freedom against prevailing trends at the national level.”—H-Diplo

“The Race for America examines Manifest Destiny not only as an idea-concept but as a series of events. . . . [Boutelle offers] a view of the nineteenth century that is continually present and that is an important addition to our study of the period and its reverberations.”—American Periodicals

“A highly researched and compellingly written study,The Race for America uses a novel approach in examining Black transnationalism across the continent through the prism of Manifest Destiny. Through his analysis of Black literature, newspapers, brochures, correspondence, and the Colored Convention movement, R. J. Boutelle expertly details the intricate history of how Black writers in the United States actively shaped debates on the geopolitical development of the singular idea of America.”—Marlene L. Daut, author of Awakening the Ashes

“The Race for America is a thoroughly compelling project, illuminated by detailed readings of canonical and underread texts as well as a fluid and inventive engagement with theory. With attention to both literary history and a conceptual verve, Boutelle has given us a timely intervention in the debates about the transnational genealogies of Black intellectual and political life of the nineteenth century.”—Ivy G. Wilson, author of Specters of Democracy: Blackness and the Aesthetics of Nationalism

“In this deeply researched book, R. J. Boutelle disentangles the complex literary history of Black transnationalism, offering new ways to understand debates around Blackness and US expansion and international relations. A compelling contribution to American hemispheric studies.”—Gretchen Murphy, University of Texas at Austin