Tales of two cities : race and economic culture in early republican North and South America : Guayaquil, Ecuador, and Baltimore, Maryland / Camilla Townsend.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Townsend, Camilla, 1965-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social classes--Ecuador--Guayaquil--History--19th century.

Social classes.

Social classes--Maryland--Baltimore--History--19th century.

Baltimore (Md.)--Economic conditions--19th century.

Baltimore (Md.).

Guayaquil (Ecuador)--Economic conditions--19th century.

Guayaquil (Ecuador).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (345 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

With a common heritage as former colonies of Europe, why did the United States so outstrip Latin America in terms of economic development in the nineteenth century? In this innovative study, Camilla Townsend challenges the traditional view that North Americans succeeded because of better attitudes toward work—the Protestant work ethic—and argues instead that they prospered because of differences in attitudes towards workers that evolved in the colonial era. Townsend builds her study around workers' lives in two very similar port cities in the 1820s and 1830s. Through the eyes of the young Frederick Douglass in Baltimore, Maryland, and an Indian woman named Ana Yagual in Guayaquil, Ecuador, she shows how differing attitudes towards race and class in North and South America affected local ways of doing business. This empirical research significantly clarifies the relationship between economic culture and racial identity and its long-term effects.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

List of Maps and Tables

Acknowledgments

Prologue: First Impressions

Introduction

Part I

1. In the Streets of the Cities

2. Conquest and Colony

Part II

3. A Merry Party and Serious Business

4. Strawberry Parties and Habits of Industry

Part III

5. The Quest of the ‘‘Personas Decentes’’

6. The Quest of the Contributing Citizens

Part IV

7. Working on Dead Man’s Rock

8. ‘‘To Become the Unfortunate Tenants of Your Alms House’’

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780292798816

0292798814

OCLC:

646760658