Between 1776 and 1783, during the American Revolutionary War, Thomas Paine wrote a series of inspirational newspaper articles entitled The American Crisis. The first of these, “Common Sense: Addressed to the Inhabitants of America on the Following Interesting Subjects...,” was famously read by George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Trenton and sold over 120,000 copies in three months. Paine’s crisis pamphlets unquestionably contributed to the forging of a new national identity as they urged settler Americans to revolt against a distant, tyrant ruler, which gave them a new sense of independence and purpose. Two centuries later, in the aftermath of 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis, Barack Obama’s first speech as the forty-fourth president of the United States, delivered on January 20, 2009, defined contemporary American history in terms of national crisis and collective responsibility in a global context in which pressing economic, sociopolitical, educational, ethical, and environmental conflicts pointed at the demise of the so-called “American Century” (Smith):

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简介：二十一世纪美国文学与文化危机的再现/表现

1776年至1783年之间，在美国独立战争期间，托马斯·潘恩（Thomas Paine）撰写了一系列鼓舞人心的报纸文章，题为《美国危机》。其中第一个是“常识：在随后有趣的主题上向美国居民讲话...”，乔治·华盛顿在特伦顿战役前向他的部队朗读，并在三个月内卖出了12万多册。潘恩的危机小册子无疑促成了新的民族认同的形成，因为他们敦促定居的美国人反抗一个遥远的暴君统治者，这给了他们新的独立性和目的感。两个世纪后，在9/11和2008年的金融危机之后，巴拉克·奥巴马（Barack Obama）作为美国第四十四届总统的第一次演讲于2009年1月20日发表，