The Soul's Economy

Market Society and Selfhood in American Thought, 1820-1920

Business & Finance, Economics, Theory of Economics, Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, 19th Century, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Sociology
Cover of the book The Soul's Economy by Jeffrey Sklansky, The University of North Carolina Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jeffrey Sklansky ISBN: 9780807861431
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press Publication: October 16, 2003
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press Language: English
Author: Jeffrey Sklansky
ISBN: 9780807861431
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Publication: October 16, 2003
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Language: English

Tracing a seismic shift in American social thought, Jeffrey Sklansky offers a new synthesis of the intellectual transformation entailed in the rise of industrial capitalism.

For a century after Independence, the dominant American understanding of selfhood and society came from the tradition of political economy, which defined freedom and equality in terms of ownership of the means of self-employment. However, the gradual demise of the household economy rendered proprietary independence an increasingly embattled ideal. Large landowners and industrialists claimed the right to rule as a privilege of their growing monopoly over productive resources, while dispossessed farmers and workers charged that a propertyless populace was incompatible with true liberty and democracy.

Amid the widening class divide, nineteenth-century social theorists devised a new science of American society that came to be called "social psychology." The change Sklansky charts begins among Romantic writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller, continues through the polemics of political economists such as Henry George and William Graham Sumner, and culminates with the pioneers of modern American psychology and sociology such as William James and Charles Horton Cooley. Together, these writers reconceived freedom in terms of psychic self-expression instead of economic self-interest, and they redefined democracy in terms of cultural kinship rather than social compact.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Tracing a seismic shift in American social thought, Jeffrey Sklansky offers a new synthesis of the intellectual transformation entailed in the rise of industrial capitalism.

For a century after Independence, the dominant American understanding of selfhood and society came from the tradition of political economy, which defined freedom and equality in terms of ownership of the means of self-employment. However, the gradual demise of the household economy rendered proprietary independence an increasingly embattled ideal. Large landowners and industrialists claimed the right to rule as a privilege of their growing monopoly over productive resources, while dispossessed farmers and workers charged that a propertyless populace was incompatible with true liberty and democracy.

Amid the widening class divide, nineteenth-century social theorists devised a new science of American society that came to be called "social psychology." The change Sklansky charts begins among Romantic writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller, continues through the polemics of political economists such as Henry George and William Graham Sumner, and culminates with the pioneers of modern American psychology and sociology such as William James and Charles Horton Cooley. Together, these writers reconceived freedom in terms of psychic self-expression instead of economic self-interest, and they redefined democracy in terms of cultural kinship rather than social compact.

More books from The University of North Carolina Press

Cover of the book Thaddeus Stevens by Jeffrey Sklansky
Cover of the book From Prejudice to Persecution by Jeffrey Sklansky
Cover of the book The Church in the Barrio by Jeffrey Sklansky
Cover of the book Tar Heel Dead by Jeffrey Sklansky
Cover of the book Army at Home by Jeffrey Sklansky
Cover of the book Toward a New Deal in Baltimore by Jeffrey Sklansky
Cover of the book The Savor the South® Cookbooks, 10 Volume Omnibus E-book by Jeffrey Sklansky
Cover of the book The Secret Lives of Fishermen by Jeffrey Sklansky
Cover of the book DDT and the American Century by Jeffrey Sklansky
Cover of the book Winning Our Freedoms Together by Jeffrey Sklansky
Cover of the book Roots of Secession by Jeffrey Sklansky
Cover of the book Raza Sí, Migra No by Jeffrey Sklansky
Cover of the book Pea Ridge by Jeffrey Sklansky
Cover of the book Iron and Steel by Jeffrey Sklansky
Cover of the book Home Fires Burning by Jeffrey Sklansky
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy