The Refinement of America
Persons, Houses, Cities
Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, 19th Century, Revolutionary Period (1775-1800), Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Anthropology
| Author: | Richard Lyman Bushman | ISBN: | 9780307761606 |
| Publisher: | Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group | Publication: | September 21, 2011 |
| Imprint: | Vintage | Language: | English |
| Author: | Richard Lyman Bushman |
| ISBN: | 9780307761606 |
| Publisher: | Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |
| Publication: | September 21, 2011 |
| Imprint: | Vintage |
| Language: | English |
This lively and authoritative volume makes clear that the quest for taste and manners in America has been essential to the serious pursuit of a democratic culture. Spanning the material world from mansions and silverware to etiquette books, city planning, and sentimental novels, Richard L. Bushman shows how a set of values originating in aristocratic court culture gradually permeated almost every stratum of American society and served to prevent the hardening of class consciousness. A work of immense and richly nuanced learning, The Refinement of America newly illuminates every facet of both our artifacts and our values.
This lively and authoritative volume makes clear that the quest for taste and manners in America has been essential to the serious pursuit of a democratic culture. Spanning the material world from mansions and silverware to etiquette books, city planning, and sentimental novels, Richard L. Bushman shows how a set of values originating in aristocratic court culture gradually permeated almost every stratum of American society and served to prevent the hardening of class consciousness. A work of immense and richly nuanced learning, The Refinement of America newly illuminates every facet of both our artifacts and our values.
