Antebellum American culture : an interpretive anthology / edited by David Brion Davis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davis, David Brion, Author.

Contributor:

Davis, David Brion, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Minorities--United States--History--19th century--Sources.

Minorities.

United States--Civilization--1783-1865--Sources.

United States.

United States--Social conditions--To 1865--Sources.

United States--History--1815-1861--Sources.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxiii, 472 p. )

Place of Publication:

University Park, Pennsylvania : Pennsylvania State University Press, [1997]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

First published in 1979, this volume offers students and teachers a unique view of American history prior to the Civil War. Distinguished historian David Brion Davis has chosen a diverse array of primary sources that show the actual concerns, hopes, fears, and understandings of ordinary antebellum Americans. He places these sources within a clear interpretive narrative that brings the documents to life and highlights themes that social and cultural historians have brought to our attention in recent years. Beginning with the family and the issue of socialization and influence, the units move on to struggles over access to wealth and power; the plight of ";outsiders"; in an ";open"; society; and ideals of progress, perfection, and mission. The reader of this volume hears a great diversity of voices but also grasps the unities that survived even the Civil War.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Preface

Contents

Introduction: Organization and Themes

UNIT ONE Socialization and the Problem of Influence

Introduction

1. The Art and Responsibilities of Family Government

2. The Discipline and Self-Discipline of the Young

3. The Changing Uses of Law

4. “ Improvements” : Transportation and Corporations

5. The Politics of Opportunity

6. The Fear of Sectional Exclusion

UNIT THREE The Plight of Outsiders in an “Open Society”

1. The Plight of Outsiders in an “Open Society” 209 1T he Protestant Establishment

2. The Problem of Aborigines: Assimilation Versus Rem

3. The Discovery of Cultural Polarities

4. The Nonfreedom of “Free Blacks”

5. The Polarized South: Outsiders Insid

UNIT FOUR Ideals of Progress, Perfection, and Mission

1 Science, Machines, and Human Progress

2 Revivals, Holiness, and the American Conversion of the World

3 The Temperance Reformation

4 Abolitionism and Moral Progress

5 The Quest for New Social Harmonies

6 Transcending Human History: Americans as “Pioneers of the World”

Chronology, 1820-1860

Notes:

Originally published: Lexington, Mass. : Heath, c1979.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780271075372

0271075376

OCLC:

966846373