The Wisdom of Exile: Edward Everett Hale’s the Man Without a Country

Abstract

Edward Everett Hale's short story "The Man Without a Country" is universally regarded as an American classic. Within a year of its publication in the Atlantic Monthly in 1863, it had sold a half a million copies. It's protagonist, Philip Nolan, is a figure in American literature that ranks up there with as Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle or Ichabod Crane. This short story was very successful in civics textbooks, has been anthologized innumerable times, was the subject of an opera, and even had its title adopted with a single change from the definite to the indefinite article by none other than Kurt Vonnegut Jr. If the story is looked at with an eye to the themes of freedom of thought on the one hand and human sociability on the other it takes us to the heart of the the question of how spiritual freedom and civic belonging relate to each other

Keywords: Education, Americanism, Civics, Patriotism, Individualism, Rebellion, Freedom