Arguing with George William Curtis

June 27th, 2010 | 2 min read

I'd never heard of George William Curtis before this past Saturday. A quote of his popped up on my friend's facebook wall, in what I assume to be a strange way of pepping himself up for the US/Ghana World Cup match. Apparently, Curtis - a contemporary of Emerson's who shared his transcendentalist beliefs and New England roots - once wrote, "A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle." It strikes me that this quote goes a long way in explaining how America sees itself - and by extension how we see physical things like bodies and land.

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Jake Meador

Jake Meador is the editor-in-chief of Mere Orthodoxy. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Commonweal, First Things, Books & Culture, The Dispatch, National Review, Comment, Christianity Today, and Plough. He lives in his hometown of Lincoln, NE with his wife and four children.

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Politics