The Fictional Republic Horatio Alger and

Investigating the persistence and place of the formulas of Horatio Alger in American politics, The Fictional Republic reassesses the Alger story in its Gilded Age context. Carol Nackenoff argues that Alger was a keen observer of the dislocations and economic pitfalls of the rapidly industrializing nation, and devised a set of symbols that addressed anxieties about power and identity. As classes were increasingly divided by wealth, life chances, residence space, and culture, Alger maintained that Americans could still belong to one estate. The story of the youth who faces threats to his virtue, power, independence, and identity stands as an allegory of the American Republic. Nackenoff examines how the Alger formula continued to shape political discourse in Reagan's America and beyond.

Preface	p. ix
Allegory of the Republic: On Interpretation and Method	p. 3
A Unitarian Project for Moral Guidance	p. 12
Republican Rites of Passage: Character and the Battle for Youth	p. 33
Guidebooks for Survival in an Industrializing Economy	p. 53
Saved From the Factory	p. 78
Technology, Organizations, Corporations, and Capitalists	p. 93
Natural Aristocracy in a Democracy: Authority, Power, and Politics	p. 110
Money, Price, and Value: Alger's Interventions in the Market	p. 133
Levelling and Its Limits	p. 162
Reading Alger: Searching for Alger's Audience in the Literary Marketplace	p. 181
The Mass Fiction Writer As Producer and Consumer: Power, Powerlessness, and Gender	p. 206
Culture Wars	p. 227
The Fictional Republic: Alger's Appeal to the American Political Imagination	p. 261
Notes	p. 272
References	p. 336
Name Index	p. 354
Subject Index	p. 357
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The Fictional Republic Horatio Alger and American Political Discourse

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