The concept of manifest destiny is as old as the first New England settlements. Without using the words, John Winthrop articulated the concept in his famous sermon, the Arbella Covenant (1630), when he said: " ... for we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; ..." Winthrop exhorts his listeners to carry on God's mission and to set a shining example for the rest of the world. From this beginning, the concept has had religious, social, economic, and political consequences. The words manifest destiny were first used by editor John L. O'Sullivan in 1845.

| Top | Selected Bibliography

Adams, Ephraim D. The power of ideals in American history. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat P, 1969. E175.9 .A3

Boime, Albert. The magisterial gaze: manifest destiny and American landscape painting, c. 1830-1865. Washington: Smithsonian Institution P, 1991. ND1351.5 .B65

Brack, Gene M. Mexico views manifest destiNY: 1821-1846: an essay on the origins of the Mexican War. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 1975. E183.8 .M6 B72

Brown, Charles H. Agents of manifest destiny: the lives and times of the filibusters. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1980. E415.7 .B77

Canfield, J. Douglas. "Kit Carson , John C. Fremont, Manifest Destiny and the Indians: Or, Oliver North Abets Lawrence of Arabia." American Indian Culture and Research Journal 22.1 (1998): 137-53.

Collin, Richard H. Theodore Roosevelt, culture, diplomacy, and expansion: a new view of American imperialism. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1985. E757 .C65

Dimock, Wai-chee. "Ahab's Manifest Destiny." Macropolitics of Nineteenth-Century Literature: Nationalism, Exoticism, Imperialism. Eds. Jonathan Arac and Harriet Ritvo. Philadelphia : U of Pennsylvania P, 1991. 184-212.

Douglas, William O. Washington and manifest destiny; address at the opening of the Library of Congress exhibition commemorating the centennial of the Territory of Washington, May 14, 1953. Washington: Library of Congress, 1953. F891 .D66

Drinnon, Richard. Facing west: the metaphysics of Indian-hating and empire building. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1980. E98 .P99 D74

Emery, Kim. "Steers, Queers, and Manifest Destiny: Representing the Lesbian Subject in Turn-of-the-Century Texas." Journal of the History of Sexuality 5.1 (Jul 1994): 26-57.

Fehrenbacher, Don E. Manifest destiny and the coming of the Civil War, 1840-1861. NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts 1970]. Z1236 .F34

Filler, Louis, and Allen Guttmann. eds. The removal of the Cherokee Nation: manifest destiny or national dishonor? Boston: Heath, 1962. E169.1 .P897 v.37

Furth, Isabella. "Manifest Destiny, Manifest Domesticity, and the Leaven of Whiteness in Uncle Tom's Cabin." Arizona Quarterly 55.2 (Sumr 1999): 31-55.

| Top | Gluek, Alvin C. Minnesota and the manifest destiny of the Canadian northwest; a study in Canadian-American relations. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1965. E183.8 .C2 G55

Hietala, Thomas R. Manifest design: anxious aggrandizement in late Jacksonian America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1990, 1985. E179.5 .H54

Horsman, Reginald. Race and manifest destiny: the origins of American racial anglo-saxonism. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1981. E179.5 .H69

Hutchison, William R. Errand to the world: American Protestant thought and foreign missions. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1987. BV2410 .H87

Jones, Howard, and Donald A. Rakestraw. Prologue to manifest destiny: Anglo-American relations in the 1840s. Wilmington, Del.: SR Books, 1997. E183.8 .G7 J64

Merk, Frederick. Manifest destiny and mission in American history; a reinterpretation. NY: Knopf, 1963. E179.5 .M4

Morrison, Michael A. Slavery and the American West: the eclipse of manifest destiny and the coming of the Civil War. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1997. E415.7 .M88

Peterson, Richard H. Manifest destiny in the mines: a cultural interpretation of anti-Mexican nativism in California, 1848-1853. San Francisco: R and E Research Associates, 1975. F870 .M5 P47

Ruiz, Ramon E. ed. The Mexican War- was it manifest destiny? Hinsdale, Ill: Dryden P, 1963. E407 .R85

Stephanson, Anders. Manifest destiny: American expansionism and the empire of right. NY: Hill and Wang, 1995. E179.5 .S82

Stineback, David C., and Charles M. Segal. Puritans, Indians, and manifest destiny. NY: Putnam, 1977. E78 .N5 P87

Stout, Joseph A. The liberators; filibustering expeditions into Mexico, 1848-1862 and the last thrust of manifest destiny. Los Angeles: Westernlore P, 1973. F1233 .S86

Weinberg, Albert K. Manifest destiny; a study of nationalist expansionism in American history. Gloucester, Mass: P. Smith, 1958 1935. E179.5 .W45

MLA Style Citation of this Web Page

Reuben, Paul P. "PAL: Appendix T: Manifest Destiny." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. URL:http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/append/axt.html (provide page date or date of your login). 

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