Arising out of the context of the re-configuration of Europe, these perspectives are applied by the authors of this volume to the process of nation-building in the United States. By focusing on a variety of public celebrations and festivities from the Revolution to the early twentieth century, the formative period of American national identity, the authors reveal the complex interrelationships between collective identities on the local, regional and national level which, over time, shaped the peculiar character of American nationalism.