As the colonies moved toward independence from Britain, an important discussion of American culture and identity came from the French immigrant J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur, whose Letters from an American Farmer addresses the question "What is an American?" by moving between praise for the opportunities and peace offered in the new society and recognition that the solid life of the farmer must rest uneasily between the oppressive aspects of the urban life and the lawless aspects of the frontier, where the lack of social structures leads to the loss of civilized living.
Cum coloniae se ab Anglia separare inciperent, fortasse una ex gravissimis explicationibus culturae et identitatis Americanae ab Ioannes de Crèvecœur, advena ex Francia facta est, cuius Letters from an American Farmer ('Epistulae agricolae Americani'), quaestionem quid sit Americanus respondentes, ambo laudant occasiones et pacem a nova societate offertam et accipiunt solidam agricolae vitam inter molestas vitae urbanae proprietates (luxuriis in servitute conditis) et proprietates sine legibus finium sollicitam necessarie iacet, ubi inopia structurarum socialium detrimentum vivendi modo civilizato inducit.WikiMatrix WikiMatrix