American Misfits and the Making of Middle-Class Respectability

American Misfits and the Making of Middle-Class Respectability PDF Author: Robert Wuthnow
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691210713
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
How American respectability has been built by maligning those who don't make the grade How did Americans come to think of themselves as respectable members of the middle class? Was it just by earning a decent living? Or did it require something more? And if it did, what can we learn that may still apply? The quest for middle-class respectability in nineteenth-century America is usually described as a process of inculcating positive values such as honesty, hard work, independence, and cultural refinement. But clergy, educators, and community leaders also defined respectability negatively, by maligning individuals and groups—“misfits”—who deviated from accepted norms. Robert Wuthnow argues that respectability is constructed by “othering” people who do not fit into easily recognizable, socially approved categories. He demonstrates this through an in-depth examination of a wide variety of individuals and groups that became objects of derision. We meet a disabled Civil War veteran who worked as a huckster on the edges of the frontier, the wife of a lunatic who raised her family while her husband was institutionalized, an immigrant religious community accused of sedition, and a wealthy scion charged with profiteering. Unlike respected Americans who marched confidently toward worldly and heavenly success, such misfits were usually ignored in paeans about the nation. But they played an important part in the cultural work that made America, and their story is essential for understanding the “othering” that remains so much a part of American culture and politics today.

American Misfits and the Making of Middle-Class Respectability

American Misfits and the Making of Middle-Class Respectability PDF Author: Robert Wuthnow
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691210713
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
How American respectability has been built by maligning those who don't make the grade How did Americans come to think of themselves as respectable members of the middle class? Was it just by earning a decent living? Or did it require something more? And if it did, what can we learn that may still apply? The quest for middle-class respectability in nineteenth-century America is usually described as a process of inculcating positive values such as honesty, hard work, independence, and cultural refinement. But clergy, educators, and community leaders also defined respectability negatively, by maligning individuals and groups—“misfits”—who deviated from accepted norms. Robert Wuthnow argues that respectability is constructed by “othering” people who do not fit into easily recognizable, socially approved categories. He demonstrates this through an in-depth examination of a wide variety of individuals and groups that became objects of derision. We meet a disabled Civil War veteran who worked as a huckster on the edges of the frontier, the wife of a lunatic who raised her family while her husband was institutionalized, an immigrant religious community accused of sedition, and a wealthy scion charged with profiteering. Unlike respected Americans who marched confidently toward worldly and heavenly success, such misfits were usually ignored in paeans about the nation. But they played an important part in the cultural work that made America, and their story is essential for understanding the “othering” that remains so much a part of American culture and politics today.

The Sentinel

The Sentinel PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Reformatories
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description


Birth of a Salesman

Birth of a Salesman PDF Author: Walter A. FRIEDMAN
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674037340
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
In this entertaining and informative book, Walter Friedman chronicles the remarkable metamorphosis of the American salesman from itinerant amateur to trained expert. From the mid-nineteenth century to the eve of World War II, the development of sales management transformed an economy populated by peddlers and canvassers to one driven by professional salesmen and executives. From book agents flogging Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs to John H. Patterson's famous pyramid strategy at National Cash Register to the determined efforts by Ford and Chevrolet to craft surefire sales pitches for their dealers, selling evolved from an art to a science. "Salesmanship" as a term and a concept arose around the turn of the century, paralleling the new science of mass production. Managers assembled professional forces of neat responsible salesmen who were presented as hardworking pillars of society, no longer the butt of endless "traveling salesmen" jokes. People became prospects; their homes became territories. As an NCR representative said, the modern salesman "let the light of reason into dark places." The study of selling itself became an industry, producing academic disciplines devoted to marketing, consumer behavior, and industrial psychology. At Carnegie Mellon's Bureau of Salesmanship Research, Walter Dill Scott studied the characteristics of successful salesmen and ways to motivate consumers to buy. Full of engaging portraits and illuminating insights, Birth of a Salesman is a singular contribution that offers a clear understanding of the transformation of salesmanship in modern America. Reviews of this book: The history Friedman weaves is engrossing and the book hits stride with entertaining chapters on Mark Twain's marketing of the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (apparently Twain was as talented a businessman as a writer) and on the shift from the drummer--the middleman between wholesalers and regional shopkeepers--to the department store...In Birth of a Salesman, Friedman has crafted a history of an 'inherently unlikable process' with depth, affection and intelligent analysis. --Carlo Wolff, Boston Globe I very much enjoyed reading this book. It is well written, well argued, and thoroughly researched. Salesmen, Friedman argues, helped distribute the products of America's increasingly bountiful manufacturing industries, invented new forms of managerial hierarchies, investigated the psychology of desire, and were in the vanguard of America's transformation from a producer to a consumer society. He powerfully shows that the rise of modern business practices and the emergence of a particularly American culture of consumption can only be fully understood if we examine the history of selling. --Sven Beckert, author of The Monied Metropolis Walter Friedman's Birth of a Salesman: The Transformation of Selling in America is an important book. The modern industrial economy, created in the United States and Europe between the 1880s and the 1930s, required the integration of large-scale production and marketing. The evolution of mass production is a well-known story, but Friedman is the first to fill in the crucial marketing side of that industrial revolution. --Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., author of The Visible Hand and Scale and Scope With wit and verve, Walter Friedman gives us a cast of memorable characters who turned salesmanship from ballyhoo to behaviorism, from silliness to science. Informed by prodigious research, Birth of a Salesman also clarifies the birth of modern marketing--from an angle that humanizes its subject through wry, ironic, but serious analysis. This is a pioneering work on a subject crucial to American social, cultural, and business history. --Thomas K. McCraw, author of Creating Modern Capitalism

The Spaces of Bookselling

The Spaces of Bookselling PDF Author: Kristen Doyle Highland
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108911153
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 181

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Book Description
The spaces of bookselling have as many stories to tell as do the books for sale. More than static backgrounds for bookselling, these dynamic spaces both shape individual and collective behaviors and perceptions and are shaped by the values and practices of booksellers and book buyers. This Element focuses primarily on bookselling in the United States from the 19th through the 21st centuries and examines three key bookselling spaces-the store, the street, and the catalogue. Following an introduction, the second section considers how the material space of bookstores shapes social engagement in and cultural values associated with the bookstore. The third section turns to itinerant and sidewalk booksellers and the ways in which they use the physical, social, and legal space of the street to craft geographies of belonging. And the final section pages through bookseller catalogues, examining them as a significant genre that works to spatialize the bookstore.

Library of Southern Literature

Library of Southern Literature PDF Author: Edwin Anderson Alderman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 836

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Book Description


A Journey Through American Literature

A Journey Through American Literature PDF Author: Kevin J. Hayes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199862079
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
A spirited and lively introduction to American literature, this book acquaints readers with the key authors, works, and events in the nation's rich and ecclectic literary tradition.

Library of Southern Literature: Biographical dictionary of authors

Library of Southern Literature: Biographical dictionary of authors PDF Author: Edwin Anderson Alderman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 526

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Book Description


Kansas, a Guide to the Sunflower State

Kansas, a Guide to the Sunflower State PDF Author: Best Books on
Publisher: Best Books on
ISBN: 1623760151
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 581

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Book Description
compiled and written by the Federal Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration for the State of Kansas ... Sponsored by the State Department of Education.

Library of Southern Literature: Historical side-lights, 50 reading courses, chart, bibliography and index

Library of Southern Literature: Historical side-lights, 50 reading courses, chart, bibliography and index PDF Author: Edwin Anderson Alderman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 832

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Book Description


Book Talk

Book Talk PDF Author: Robert H. Jackson (jurist)
Publisher: Oak Knoll Press
ISBN: 9781584561880
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
"A fascinating and valuable insight into the fast-changing worlds of the bibliophile." -John Lewis