A perennial choice for courses on antebellum America, Jacksonian America continues to be a popular classroom text with scholars of the period, even among those who bridle at Pessen's iconoclastic views of Old Hickory and his "inegalitarian society.
The age of Jackson saw the beginnings of America's labor movement in the emergence both of trade unions and of the Working Men's political parties. The leadership of this movement was one of its most outstanding and fascinating features. These radical leaders were "uncommon Jacksonians" in that they stood apart from both main currents of their day—the optimistic pursuit of material gain, and the moralistic criticism of that pursuit by traditionalists. They advocated a different, if minority, ideology, and it is this ideology that is Professor Pessen's major concern in this book. The labor spokesmen were as diverse and complex as the movement they led. Some were employers rather than laborers and even the union leaders included men who had never actually soiled their hands in manual toil. In a sense these leaders were middle-class idealists interested in every variety of reform. They were drawn to labor largely because they believed it the most productive as well as the most victimized group in American society. For all their differences, however, the leaders' social views were strikingly similar. They saw America as a class society dominated by the wealthy in general, capitalists in particular, with the control of government and the courts in the hands of the rich. Their picture of the contemporary social landscape was one marked by the poverty of the masses and vast disparities in wealth, power, and prestige. Greatly influenced by English radical thought, they rejected the Malthusian dictum that the poor were responsible for their own misery. They fixed the blame instead on a number of social institutions, the chief villain of which was private property. Without using the word "socialism," the leaders' vision of the good society was one in which no man profited from the labor of another, and the guiding principle was "to each according to his deeds." Though a complex and often inconsistent phenomenon, the political movement represented by the early Working Men's Parties was an authentic expression of labor's views, Professor Pessen believes. This study challenges the legend that organized labor enthusiastically supported Jackson, and the longstanding myth that American labor movements have characteristically been conservative. Most Uncommon Jacksonians adds new perspectives to the history of American social thought.
Until publication of Riches, Classes, and Power, Alexis de Tocquerville's vision of the United States as a generally egalitarian nation predominated. While historians might quarrel about the social sources of egalitarianism, they did not dispute the soundness of the basic model; and Tocqueville's vision clearly dominated American's sense of itself as well. A self-acknowledged congenital skeptic, Pessen decided to find out whether the facts of American life sustained Tocqueville's conclusions. Riches, Class, and Power, represents more than five years' intensive research on the wealth, family backgrounds, careers, marriages, residential patterns, uses of leisure, life-styles, social standing, and influence and power of the wealthy in four of the five largest cities in the United States before the Civil War. Pessen examines New York City, Philadelphia, Boston and the then-separate city of Brooklyn in the 1820s and 1840s. His claim is that the massive evidence on urban life of the time sharply refutes Tocqueville's thesis. A National Book Award finalist for history, Riches, Class, and Power undoubtedly helped reshape America before the Civil War. In his reintroduction to this paperback edition, Pessen reviews the critical reaction, and reconsiders the extent to which its findings are applicable to the social structure of small or frontier towns of the period. He discusses whether unequal distribution of wealth in America results more from changes in historical circumstance or to shifts in demographic or age structure.
Until publication of Riches, Classes, and Power, Alexis de Tocquerville's vision of the United States as a generally egalitarian nation predominated. While historians might quarrel about the social sources of egalitarianism, they did not dispute the soundness of the basic model; and Tocqueville's vision clearly dominated American's sense of itself as well. A self-acknowledged congenital skeptic, Pessen decided to find out whether the facts of American life sustained Tocqueville's conclusions. Riches, Class, and Power, represents more than five years' intensive research on the wealth, family backgrounds, careers, marriages, residential patterns, uses of leisure, life-styles, social standing, and influence and power of the wealthy in four of the five largest cities in the United States before the Civil War. Pessen examines New York City, Philadelphia, Boston and the then-separate city of Brooklyn in the 1820s and 1840s. His claim is that the massive evidence on urban life of the time sharply refutes Tocqueville's thesis. A National Book Award finalist for history, Riches, Class, and Power undoubtedly helped reshape America before the Civil War. In his reintroduction to this paperback edition, Pessen reviews the critical reaction, and reconsiders the extent to which its findings are applicable to the social structure of small or frontier towns of the period. He discusses whether unequal distribution of wealth in America results more from changes in historical circumstance or to shifts in demographic or age structure.
Examines the backgrounds of each of our presidents, argues that their families were better off than the average American family, and discusses the whole presidential selection process
A perennial choice for courses on antebellum America, Jacksonian America continues to be a popular classroom text with scholars of the period, even among those who bridle at Pessen's iconoclastic views of Old Hickory and his "inegalitarian society.
The age of Jackson saw the beginnings of America's labor movement in the emergence both of trade unions and of the Working Men's political parties. The leadership of this movement was one of its most outstanding and fascinating features. These radical leaders were "uncommon Jacksonians" in that they stood apart from both main currents of their day—the optimistic pursuit of material gain, and the moralistic criticism of that pursuit by traditionalists. They advocated a different, if minority, ideology, and it is this ideology that is Professor Pessen's major concern in this book. The labor spokesmen were as diverse and complex as the movement they led. Some were employers rather than laborers and even the union leaders included men who had never actually soiled their hands in manual toil. In a sense these leaders were middle-class idealists interested in every variety of reform. They were drawn to labor largely because they believed it the most productive as well as the most victimized group in American society. For all their differences, however, the leaders' social views were strikingly similar. They saw America as a class society dominated by the wealthy in general, capitalists in particular, with the control of government and the courts in the hands of the rich. Their picture of the contemporary social landscape was one marked by the poverty of the masses and vast disparities in wealth, power, and prestige. Greatly influenced by English radical thought, they rejected the Malthusian dictum that the poor were responsible for their own misery. They fixed the blame instead on a number of social institutions, the chief villain of which was private property. Without using the word "socialism," the leaders' vision of the good society was one in which no man profited from the labor of another, and the guiding principle was "to each according to his deeds." Though a complex and often inconsistent phenomenon, the political movement represented by the early Working Men's Parties was an authentic expression of labor's views, Professor Pessen believes. This study challenges the legend that organized labor enthusiastically supported Jackson, and the longstanding myth that American labor movements have characteristically been conservative. Most Uncommon Jacksonians adds new perspectives to the history of American social thought.
The Cold War era spawned a host of anxieties in American society, and in response, Americans sought cultural institutions that reinforced their sense of national identity and held at bay their nagging insecurities. They saw football as a broad, though varied, embodiment of national values. College teams in particular were thought to exemplify the essence of America: strong men committed to hard work, teamwork, and overcoming pain. Toughness and defiance were primary virtues, and many found in the game an idealized American identity. In this book, Kurt Kemper charts the steadily increasing investment of American national ideals in the presentation and interpretation of college football, beginning with a survey of the college game during World War II. From the Army-Navy game immediately before Pearl Harbor, through the gradual expansion of bowl games and television coverage, to the public debates over racially integrated teams, college football became ever more a playing field for competing national ideals. Americans utilized football as a cultural mechanism to magnify American distinctiveness in the face of Soviet gains, and they positioned the game as a cultural force that embodied toughness, discipline, self-deprivation, and other values deemed crucial to confront the Soviet challenge. Americans applied the game in broad strokes to define an American way of life. They debated and interpreted issues such as segregation, free speech, and the role of the academy in the Cold War. College Football and American Culture in the Cold War Era offers a bold new contribution to our understanding of Americans' assumptions and uncertainties regarding the Cold War.
Offers insight into the lesser-known complexities of the general's personality, in a biography based on his unpublished personal correspondence and covering such topics as his early years, relationships with family and slaves, and thoughts on military str
As events highlight deep divisions in attitudes between America and Europe, this is a very timely study of different approaches to the problems of domestic inequality and poverty. Based on careful and systematic analysis of national data, the authors describe just how much the two continents differ in their level of State engagement in the redistribution of income. Discussing various possible economic explanations for the difference, they cover different levels of pre-tax income, openness, and social mobility; they survey politico-historical differences such as the varying physical size of nations, their electoral and legal systems, and the character of their political parties, as well as their experiences of war; and they examine sociological explanations, which include different attitudes to the poor and notions of social responsibility. Most importantly, they address attitudes to race, calculating that attitudes to race explain half the observed difference in levels of public redistribution of income. This important and provocative analysis will captivate academic and serious lay readers in economics and welfare systems.
Judgment and Sensibility is the second volume of the collected essays of E. Digby Baltzell, one of the keenest observers and analysts of America's upper classes since Thorstein Veblen. Spanning four decades of writing, these essays cover a wide range of topics, including contemporary politics, democratic elitism, Puritanism, Judaism, higher education, urbanization, and the U.S. Supreme Court, among others.
The "self-made" man is a familiar figure in nineteenth-century American history. But the relentless expansion of market relations that facilitated such stories of commercial success also ensured that individual bankruptcy would become a prominent feature in the nation's economic landscape. In this ambitious foray into the shifting character of American capitalism, Edward Balleisen explores the economic roots and social meanings of bankruptcy, assessing the impact of widespread insolvency on the evolution of American law, business culture, and commercial society. Balleisen makes innovative use of the rich and previously overlooked court records generated by the 1841 Federal Bankruptcy Act, building his arguments on the commercial biographies of hundreds of failed business owners. He crafts a nuanced account of how responses to bankruptcy shaped two opposing elements of capitalist society in mid-nineteenth-century America--an entrepreneurial ethos grounded in risk taking and the ceaseless search for new markets, new products, and new ways of organizing economic activity, and an urban, middle-class sensibility increasingly averse to the dangers associated with independent proprietorship and increasingly predicated on salaried, white-collar employment.
Few aspects of American military history have been as vigorously debated as Harry Truman's decision to use atomic bombs against Japan. In this carefully crafted volume, Michael Kort describes the wartime circumstances and thinking that form the context for the decision to use these weapons, surveys the major debates related to that decision, and provides a comprehensive collection of key primary source documents that illuminate the behavior of the United States and Japan during the closing days of World War II. Kort opens with a summary of the debate over Hiroshima as it has evolved since 1945. He then provides a historical overview of thye events in question, beginning with the decision and program to build the atomic bomb. Detailing the sequence of events leading to Japan's surrender, he revisits the decisive battles of the Pacific War and the motivations of American and Japanese leaders. Finally, Kort examines ten key issues in the discussion of Hiroshima and guides readers to relevant primary source documents, scholarly books, and articles.
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