AMERICAN SOCIETY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. NEW ENGLAND From city upon a hill to the city by the sea Impact of the sea on New England culture: Mayflower.

AMERICAN SOCIETY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

NEW ENGLANDFrom city upon a hill to the city by the seaImpact of the sea on New England culture:Mayflower Compact—executed at seaJohn Winthrop’s sermon—held at

Southampton harborArrival by sea led to closer communities, not

as much dispersal as in case of the Westward Expansion

THE IMPORTANCE OF FISHINGNot only a commercial item, sought after at

the marketInfluences the spirit of the people-struggle

with nature, quick decision-making-Yankee mindset

Shipbuilding—getting in conflict with the British

The rise of a sea-faring enterpriseCultural impact: Melville’s works, Moby Dick,

Redburn, Typee, Oomoo, etc.

RESOURCEFULNESSCompanion industries: rise from the need to

keep food freshFrederic Tudor of Boston, the Ice KingUse of horse drawn ice cuttersStarted working in business at 13Global enterprise: warehouses in Calcutta,

Madras, Bombay, Singapore, Jamaica, New Orleans

THE MIND OF AN ENTREPRENEUR"He who gives back at the first repulse and

without striking the second blow, despairs of success has never been, is not,and never will be a hero in war, love, or business."

Frederic Tudor - 1805The first page of Tudor's' "Ice House

Diary"

THE USE OF GRANITERocky soil broke ploughsHowever granite is good for constructionPrevious construction materials: clay, brick,

cement, and red sandstoneGranite cutting leads to high standard

architectureAlexander Parris

ALEXANDER PARRISSelf-taught largely through publicationsHis best works were St Paul's Church (now

the Episcopal Cathedral) of Boston, Faneuil Hall

Parris was involved in the organization of the profession into the American Institution of Architects

FANEUIL HALL

THE RISE OF THE AMERICAN FACTORYMiddle of the 19th century: New England

System, based on ingenuityCapital accumulation due to commerce at seaJefferson’s Embargo Act in 1807, forces New

Englanders to look toward new types of economic activity

Colonial period: village craftsmen, guilds, main source of power: water

Center of craftmanship: Philadelphia

IMMIGRANT ARTISANS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURYMost distinctly American craft products:

Pennsylvania rifle-later Kentucky rifle, conestoga wagon :

AMERICAN SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURINGAmericans copy European, primarily British

methodsSamuel Slater brings the design of

Arkwright’s machine’s in memory from England

Obstacle for the development of industry: laborers had more opportunities, plentiful land

MAIN FEATURES OF AMERICAN LABOR FORCEPromotion of morality, Boarding House

system: respectable women supervise female workers

No permanent factory class—a circulating current of virtuous and healthy population

Not a static class: men on the move, rather than in the groove

Geographic, social mobility, lack of organized guilds, general literacy

THE KNOW-HOW REVOLUTIONScarcity leads to new expertsA new law, medicine, theologyThe Whitney System: separate manufacturing

procedures under one roofManufacturing process is broken down into

separate, independent piecesRise of mass production

THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF LAWAmerican Revolution—led by people with

legal trainingYet no law reports, no organized statutes, no

legal education, most lawyers are self-educated

New England creates American law

FOUNDATIONS OF AMERICAN LAWPuritan heritage, legalistic thinking, adoring

the WordCovenant—basic document of Puritan society

and culture, agreement between God and an individual

American Revolution—led by lawyersAdaptation of English common law to societyBlackstone: Commentaries on the Laws of

England

SEARCH FOR A NATIONAL LAWFirst law school. Litchfield, CT, 1784England: single jurisdiction, a single national

systemU.S.: each state had its own lawsFederal and state legal system

IMPROVING SOCIETY, Reform movements in New EnglandHorace Mann: founder of public school systemJosiah Quincy: fights against gambling,

prostitution, establishes municipal sewage system

Dorothea Dix: social reformer, fighting for the improvement of the treatment of the insane

Thomas Gallaudet: teaching the deafSamuel Howe: schools for the blind15 gallon law: no alcohol could be sold below

this amount, except for medicinal purposes

LECTURE EIGHT, a brief look at the South and the WestSelf-perception: a separate, homogeneous

nationPart myth, part factCultural variety, remnants of French culture

in Louisiana, Spanish heritage in FloridaSouthern chivalry, code of honor. Moonlight and magnoliaLast EdenBenighted South

PLANTERSFlexibility of the merchant, stability of the

farmerColonial period: connection with EnglandMain product: tobacco,Sold in England by English Factor

(commercial agent, sold colonial client’s crop, made purchases for him, arranged English education for planter’s children)

PLANTERSRevolution broke the connection to the

English factor, substituted by American factorOperated from American headquarters, first

dealt in tobacco, later cotton, rice, sugarcaneMost powerful: cotton factorReceived the whole crop, was free to make

deals, 2.5% of goods sold was his shareBecame an ambassador of the planter, as he

was tied to his land

SOUTHERN LANDSCAPE1820S: important cities: Baltimore Md.,

Richmond, Norfolk, Alexandria Va. Charleston SC, New Orleans La.

First the countryside develops than cities appear

Less cosmopolitan, more rural, more conservative

STATIC SOUTHReluctance to apply new technology, 1850s

still worked with colonial hoe in So. CarolinaStaple crops, tobacco, cotton, rice, sugar,

promote a routineQuiet life as compared to the bustling

northern cityPromotion of organic growth, less

technology, Southern cities prohibited the use of steam

power

STATIC SOUTHNorthern legal institutions didn’t take rootDebts, a major issue in New England law,

was a personal matter, a question of honorSouthern gentlemen had to meet debts,

otherwise lose their honorNo joint stock companies developed

IMAGE MAKERS OF THE SOUTHH.B. Stowe: Unce Tom’s CabinStephen Foster: popularizes nostalgic views

of plantation society „My Old Kentucky Home”

Charles K. Harris ‘Mid the Green Fields of Virginia’

All of the above either never actually visited the South, or had direct knowledge of it

A DIVERSE SOUTHCannot be imagined outside the larger

American contextSome observers believe that violence and

racism are intensified, magnified versions of negative American characteristics

Although a distinctive South previously existed, the differences disappeared due to forces of modernization, urbanization, mass transport, air conditioning, mass communication

A STATE OF MINDThomas Jefferson: certain qualities are

connected with climateWarmth of Virginia: people are fiery,

independent, generous, indolentCultural and cognitive reality of the South is

expressed as a sociological phenomenon-John Shelton Reed

SOUTHERN ICONOGRAPHYConfederate flag combination of Navy Jack,

Southern Cross, Singing Dixie wish I was in de land ob cotton,

Old times dar am not forgotten; Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land. In Dixie Land whar I was born in, Early on one frosty mornin, Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land. Black dialect, comic, minstrel elements

Colonel Rebel

COLONEL REBEL AND THE CONFEDERATE FLAG

THE WESTA cultural studies approachFoucault: there are subjugated knowledges

buried below and to be discovered and injected into our perceptions of culture

Regional variety and difference: alternative stories

Regionalism as a series of critical dialogues with the center

THE WEST AND THE AMERICAN VALUE SYSTEMManifestation of all crucial cultural concepts:

exceptionalism, power, race, ecology, destiny, gender, and identity

The notion of chosenness, only those selected by nature or history will survive

Formation of national character in confrontation with the wilderness

Mythic notions of heroism as a script for history

FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER AND THE WEST1893: The Significance of the Frontier in

American History (a lecture at the Columbian Exposition)

Frontier: a line between savagery and civilization

Shaped by three forces: free land, nature, and the Indian

Turner constructs a story to explain progressA creation story for America, a manifestation

of Translatio Imperii

THE LANDDifferences between Native and White

perceptionsNative: „we are the land and the land is

mother to us all”White settlers: chasing private dreams,

ecological imperialism, the land is altered by the arrival of the settlers

Free, vacant, virgin land Henry Nash Smith

MILESTONES IN THE HISTORY OF THE WEST1804-06: Lewis and Clark expedition1849: California Gold Rush1862: Homestead Act1876: Battle of Little Big Horn1890: Massacre at Wounded Knee

MANIFEST DESTINY

MANIFEST DESTINYThe untransacted destiny of the American

people is to subdue the continent—Wiliam Gilpin

1845 John L. Sullivan:“Our manifest destiny is to overspread the

continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions”

West as a place of male protection, possession, and assault, woman is passively held as fantasy or ideal

THE WESTERN ICONDominant image: masculinityMen imitate the land in westerns: they are

hard, tough, unforgivingJane Tompkins: Western: secular, materialist,

antifeminist, conflict in the public space,Feminine realms of power: home, family,

church

WESTERN HEROES

LECTURE NINE: AMERICAN TECHNOLOGY1776: American Revolution- a political

revolution leads to the development of the continental empire

Coincides with the Industrial Revolution in Europe

Colonial economy used medieval technologyNew Republic borrowing the technology of

the Old World

COLONIAL TECHNOLOGYTechnological aspects of the crisis of

feudalismCaravel—light weight ships with mounted

cannonsHeavy plow, helped to exploit the landstirruped saddle. Kept natives at bayHandcraftsTransportation means: horseback and boat

IMPACT OF STEAM ENGINE1763: James Watt’s Steam engineRevolutionizes transportation: canals,

turnpikesImpact on textile industry: spinning jenny,

power loomIron makingRise of a new profession: civil engineer

THE RISE OF YANKEE INGENUITY1785: Oliver Evans, automatic flour mill

(moved by buckets on belts, and an endless supply of screws)

Until the Hungarian type mill, this type is dominant

American system: a fundamental contribution to modern technology: manufacture of interchangeable parts, based on Swedish, French, and English methods

Lower costs of production

FOUNDATIONS OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTIONEconomic, political unityIndividual genius of inventor, entrepreneurInstitutional support U.S. Military Academy:

first engineering schoolInstitutionalization of technological training-

formation of engineering societies

LEADING FORCES OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONPractical solutions for practical problems

(barbed wire (Joseph Glidden), Thomas Edison: uses scientific principles to

solve everyday problemsThere is no substitute for hard work-myth of

the inventor (no serendipity)Main inventions: practical use of electricity,

incandescent light bulb

EMERGENCE OF EARLY INFORMATION SYSTEMS1876 March 10: Watson come here, I want

you-Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone American Telephone and Telegraph

How did information travel earlier?-mail-Samuel Morse (1844) across wires, instant

communication1860: Pony Express

EMERGENCE OF EARLY INFORMATION SYSTEMSSpeaking telegraphElimination of distancesFoundation of information systems needed

for the industrial societyNeeds served: increasingly specialized

production, placement of orders,market related information (prices, markets, supply sources)

OTHER BUSINESS MACHINESForerunner: C. Latham Sholes-automatic

numbering system1868: Patenting the typewriter1870: Remington Arms Co. mass productionGradually accepted by the business world1872: Carbon paper, invented for copying1890: Alfred Dick invents the mimeograph-

forerunner of photocopying