The American Civilizing Process

, by Mennell, Stephen

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ISBN: 9780745632094 | 0745632092
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 10/15/2007

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Summary

Author Biography

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Stephen Mennell answers contemporary questions about the state of America through a careful study of the whole span of American development, from the first settlers to the American Empire.

Preface	p. viii
Prologue: Civilizing Processes	p. 1
The theory of civilizing processes	p. 4
Established-outsiders relations	p. 18
Conclusion: The plan and major themes of the book	p. 20
'American Civilization'	p. 23
The Founding Fathers as philosophes	p. 25
'Progress'	p. 26
Fugitive government	p. 28
'Human nature'	p. 33
Conclusion	p. 38
'Fellow Americans' and Outsiders	p. 40
Others: the Native Americans	p. 41
Others: the blacks	p. 43
Others: the Europeans	p. 44
Anti-Americanism: how the outsiders view the established	p. 48
Conclusion	p. 50
American Manners Under Scrutiny	p. 51
American manners books	p. 53
Americans observed	p. 56
Technology, hygiene and deference	p. 67
Victorianism	p. 73
Informalization	p. 75
Conclusion	p. 80
American Aristocracies	p. 81
The colonial gentry	p. 82
The South: American Junkers?	p. 85
The North: working upper classes	p. 94
From cumulative to dispersed inequalities?	p. 100
A significant absence: an aristocracy of office	p. 103
Conclusion	p. 104
The Market Society	p. 106
The constraints of the market	p. 107
The constraints of organization	p. 115
Conclusion	p. 120
Violence and Aggressiveness	p. 122
Long-term trends in violence	p. 123
Is America peculiarly violent?	p. 133
The Western myth as a form of romanticism	p. 137
No duty to retreat	p. 138
Capital punishment	p. 149
Conclusion	p. 154
And Wilderness is Paradise Enow: From Settlements to Independence	p. 158
Autarky, but not terra nullius	p. 160
Population	p. 163
Early phases of the American state-formation process	p. 165
Conclusion	p. 179
But Westward, Look, the Land is Bright: From Frontier to Empire	p. 180
Manifest destiny and latent dynamics: a necessary theoretical digression	p. 181
The balance between the planned and the unplanned in US territorial expansion	p. 184
'Sovereignty' as a function of power ratios	p. 190
The frontier	p. 193
Beyond manifest destiny: the beginnings of an American empire	p. 209
Conclusion	p. 212
Integration Struggles	p. 214
Urbanization and resentment of the city	p. 215
Immigration	p. 218
Growth of the means of ruling	p. 223
The breakdown: the Civil War and its aftermath	p. 233
A central ambivalence: the armed forces	p. 240
Conclusion	p. 247
The Curse of the American Dream	p. 249
Equality and inequality in America	p. 250
The American welfare state	p. 254
Social mobility in America	p. 262
Conclusion: Upwards identification not mutual identification?	p. 263
Involvement, Detachment and American Religiosity	p. 266
Fantasy and the growth of knowledge	p. 268
American religion in long-term perspective	p. 273
Some explanations	p. 282
Odd one out - Europe or the USA?	p. 289
Conclusion	p. 291
America and Humanity as a Whole	p. 294
'American social character': diminishing contrasts, increasing varieties	p. 298
The problem of the American homo clausus: the we-I balance	p. 301
Market fundamentalism and diminishing foresight	p. 305
Functional de-democratization	p. 311
The American empire	p. 314
Conclusion: path-dependency in America and the world	p. 320
Notes	p. 323
References	p. 346
Index	p. 373
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The American Civilizing Process

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials