“Ben Kafka’s”:http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/view/Ben_Kafka article on “paperwork, state power, and the French revolution”:http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/rep.2007.98.1.1 is really oodles of fun.
On the selfhood in America angle, “Making the American Self: Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln”:http://www.amazon.com/Making-American-Self-Jonathan-Cultural/dp/0674165551/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215245284&sr=8-1 And on the ‘early modern europe/history of knowledge about the colonies’ theme: “Wonder and Science: Imagining Worlds in Early Modern Europe”:http://books.google.com/books?id=BiXjSTNLWIEC&pg=PA335&vq=recapturing+anthropology&lr=&source=gbs_search_s&sig=ACfU3U1bKYUd2unE23NXNQQFlfgVGr3eVQ#PPP1,M1