Download or read book The Myth of Rugged American Individualism written by Charles Austin Beard and published by . This book was released on 1932 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Rugged Individualism and the Misunderstanding of American Inequality written by Lawrence M. Eppard and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-02-20 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rugged Individualism and the Misunderstanding of American Inequalityexplores and critiques the widespread perception in the United States that one’s success or failure in life is largely the result of personal choices and individual characteristics. As the authors show, the distinctively individualist ideology of American politics and culture shapes attitudes toward poverty and economic inequality in profound ways, fostering social policies that de-emphasize structural remedies. Drawing on a variety of unique methodologies, the book synthesizes data from large-scale surveys of the American population, and it features both conversations with academic experts and interviews with American citizens intimately familiar with the consequences of economic disadvantage. This mixture of approaches gives readers a fuller understanding of “skeptical altruism,” a concept the authors use to describe the American public’s hesitancy to adopt a more robust and structurally-oriented approach to solving the persistent problem of economic disadvantage.
Download or read book Rugged Individualism written by David Davenport and published by Hoover Press. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, American "rugged individualism" is in a fight for its life on two battlegrounds: in the policy realm and in the intellectual world of ideas that may lead to new policies. In this book, the authors look at the political context in which rugged individualism flourishes or declines and offer a balanced assessment of its future prospects. They outline its path from its founding—marked by the Declaration of Independence—to today, focusing on different periods in our history when rugged individualism was thriving or was under attack. The authors ultimately look with some optimism toward new frontiers of the twenty-first century that may nourish rugged individualism. They assert that we cannot tip the delicate balance between equality and liberty so heavily in favor of equality that there is no liberty left for individual Americans to enjoy. In considering reasons to be pessimistic as well as reasons to be optimistic about it, they also suggest where supporters of rugged individualism might focus greater encouragement and resources.
Download or read book The Myth of American Individualism written by Barry Alan Shain and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sharpening the debate over the values that formed America's founding political philosophy, Barry Alan Shain challenges us to reconsider what early Americans meant when they used such basic political concepts as the public good, liberty, and slavery. We have too readily assumed, he argues, that eighteenth-century Americans understood these and other terms in an individualistic manner. However, by exploring how these core elements of their political thought were employed in Revolutionary-era sermons, public documents, newspaper editorials, and political pamphlets, Shain reveals a very different understanding--one based on a reformed Protestant communalism. In this context, individual liberty was the freedom to order one's life in accord with the demanding ethical standards found in Scripture and confirmed by reason. This was in keeping with Americans' widespread acceptance of original sin and the related assumption that a well-lived life was only possible in a tightly knit, intrusive community made up of families, congregations, and local government bodies. Shain concludes that Revolutionary-era Americans defended a Protestant communal vision of human flourishing that stands in stark opposition to contemporary liberal individualism. This overlooked component of the American political inheritance, he further suggests, demands examination because it alters the historical ground upon which contemporary political alternatives often seek legitimation, and it facilitates our understanding of much of American history and of the foundational language still used in authoritative political documents.
Download or read book The Roots of American Individualism written by Alex Zakaras and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2024-08-20 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A panoramic history of American individualism from its nineteenth-century origins to today’s bitterly divided politics Individualism is a defining feature of American public life. Its influence is pervasive today, with liberals and conservatives alike promising to expand personal freedom and defend individual rights against unwanted intrusion, be it from big government, big corporations, or intolerant majorities. The Roots of American Individualism traces the origins of individualist ideas to the turbulent political controversies of the Jacksonian era (1820–1850) and explores their enduring influence on American politics and culture. Alex Zakaras plunges readers into the spirited and rancorous political debates of Andrew Jackson’s America, drawing on the stump speeches, newspaper editorials, magazine articles, and sermons that captivated mass audiences and shaped partisan identities. He shows how these debates popularized three powerful myths that celebrated the young nation as an exceptional land of liberty: the myth of the independent proprietor, the myth of the rights-bearer, and the myth of the self-made man. The Roots of American Individualism reveals how generations of politicians, pundits, and provocateurs have invoked these myths for competing political purposes. Time and again, the myths were used to determine who would enjoy equal rights and freedoms and who would not. They also conjured up heavily idealized, apolitical visions of social harmony and boundless opportunity, typically centered on the free market, that have distorted American political thought to this day.
Download or read book The Cult of Individualism written by Aaron Barlow and published by Praeger. This book was released on 2013-08-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American individualism: It is the reason for American success, but it also tears the nation apart. Why do Americans have so much trouble seeing eye to eye today? Is this new? Was there ever an American consensus? The Cult of Individualism: A History of an Enduring American Myth explores the rarely discussed cultural differences leading to today's seemingly intractable political divides. After an examination of the various meanings of individualism in America, author Aaron Barlow describes the progression and evolution of the concept from the 18th century on, illuminating the wide division in Caucasian American culture that developed between the culture based on the ideals of the English Enlightenment and that of the Scots-Irish "Borderers." The "Borderer" legacy, generally explored only by students of Appalachian culture, remains as pervasive and significant in contemporary American culture and politics as it is, unfortunately, overlooked. It is from the "Borderers" that the Tea Party sprang, along with many of the attitudes of the contemporary American right, making it imperative that this culture be thoroughly explored.
Download or read book The Cult of Individualism written by Aaron Barlow and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-08-27 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American individualism: It is the reason for American success, but it also tears the nation apart. Why do Americans have so much trouble seeing eye to eye today? Is this new? Was there ever an American consensus? The Cult of Individualism: A History of an Enduring American Myth explores the rarely discussed cultural differences leading to today's seemingly intractable political divides. After an examination of the various meanings of individualism in America, author Aaron Barlow describes the progression and evolution of the concept from the 18th century on, illuminating the wide division in Caucasian American culture that developed between the culture based on the ideals of the English Enlightenment and that of the Scots-Irish "Borderers." The "Borderer" legacy, generally explored only by students of Appalachian culture, remains as pervasive and significant in contemporary American culture and politics as it is, unfortunately, overlooked. It is from the "Borderers" that the Tea Party sprang, along with many of the attitudes of the contemporary American right, making it imperative that this culture be thoroughly explored.
Download or read book The myths of American individualism and their effect on public goods written by Andrew Christian Grigsby and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Self Made Man Myth and Reality of an American Phenomenon written by Kira Kogan and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2013-08-07 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2010 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (Auslandswissenschaft), course: Hauptseminar: “Who are the Americans? Politics, Business and Culture from New York to California”, language: English, abstract: In the first part of this essay I will contemplate the historical development of the concept of American individualism through the centuries, which created a contextual background for the establishment of a self-made man idea in the minds of Americans. In addition there will be given the biographical examples of self-made men that became a pattern for all the successors in American history. Furthermore I would like to make an overview of the various aspects of self-made man philosophy, which includes the discussion of its positive and negative sides and its influences on personality and society in general. Finally I will debate the ways of realisation of the self-made man idea nowadays and weigh the existing perspectives in the individualistic and contradictory world of now.
Download or read book American Individualism written by Herbert Hoover and published by Garden City, Doubleday. This book was released on 1922 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Hoover expounds and vigorously defends what has come to be called American exceptionalism: the set of beliefs and values that still makes America unique. He argues that America can make steady, sure progress if we preserve our individualism, preserve and stimulate the initiative of our people, insist on and maintain the safeguards to equality of opportunity, and honor service as a part of our national character.
Download or read book The Wild West written by Will Wright and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2001-08-09 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Will Wright explores the continuing popularity of the myth of the Wild West, demonstrating how, as a cultural icon, it speaks deeply to a desire for individualism and liberty. The author discusses the myth through market and social theory.
Download or read book Feminism Without Illusions written by Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 1991 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In arguing that feminism has neither adequately acknowledged its ties to individualism nor squarely faced the extent to which many of its campaigns for social justice are based on the insistence of rights for the individual over good of the community, thi
Download or read book Bowling Alone Revised and Updated written by Robert D. Putnam and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Updated to include a new chapter about the influence of social media and the Internet—the 20th anniversary edition of Bowling Alone remains a seminal work of social analysis, and its examination of what happened to our sense of community remains more relevant than ever in today’s fractured America. Twenty years, ago, Robert D. Putnam made a seemingly simple observation: once we bowled in leagues, usually after work; but no longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolized a significant social change that became the basis of the acclaimed bestseller, Bowling Alone, which The Washington Post called “a very important book” and Putnam, “the de Tocqueville of our generation.” Bowling Alone surveyed in detail Americans’ changing behavior over the decades, showing how we had become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and social structures, whether it’s with the PTA, church, clubs, political parties, or bowling leagues. In the revised edition of his classic work, Putnam shows how our shrinking access to the “social capital” that is the reward of communal activity and community sharing still poses a serious threat to our civic and personal health, and how these consequences have a new resonance for our divided country today. He includes critical new material on the pervasive influence of social media and the internet, which has introduced previously unthinkable opportunities for social connection—as well as unprecedented levels of alienation and isolation. At the time of its publication, Putnam’s then-groundbreaking work showed how social bonds are the most powerful predictor of life satisfaction, and how the loss of social capital is felt in critical ways, acting as a strong predictor of crime rates and other measures of neighborhood quality of life, and affecting our health in other ways. While the ways in which we connect, or become disconnected, have changed over the decades, his central argument remains as powerful and urgent as ever: mending our frayed social capital is key to preserving the very fabric of our society.
Download or read book Thomas Alva Edison written by Wyn Wachhorst and published by Mit Press. This book was released on 1983-03 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There have been countless biographies of Edison the man, detailing the course of his life and describing his inventions. The subject of this book is larger than life: Edison the Myth, Edison the Hero. It traces the transmutations of Edison's image in the eyes of his countrymen as the ideal embodiment of American values and virtues: hard work, perseverance, the gospel of technological progress, the mythology of the self-made man, individualism, optimism, practicality mingled with idealism. To the American public in the late nineteenth century, Edison was the Wizard, the archetypal Scientist, and finally the Creator. Many journalistic accounts of the period evoke the Promethean and Faustian legends, depicting Edison as the bringer of light from on high, the worker of miracles designed to delight and ease the life of the common man. Not long after the turn of the century, however, many Americans began to feel that life had gone soft, that material comforts&-many of them made possible by Edison's own inventions&-were eroding character, that the individual could no longer make his voice heard above the drone of the mass society as he could in the good old days when pastoral values were still supreme. Accordingly, the author notes that the mythic image of Edison changed: The young Tom Edison was seen as the All-American Boy (the spunky Tom Sawyer, the handy Tom Swift) who by his own efforts and perseverance overcame great odds to achieve adult success&-the self-made man who didn't forget where he came from and retained his social consciousness&-the rugged individualist who had to struggle in the laboratory and in life, but who, on his own, made a difference and had more than 1000 patents to prove it. The book concludes by suggesting that the Edison legacy has now shifted from the myth to the man himself and that &"the man who remains is finally greater than the myth.&" The author interprets Edison from today's perspective as the real and symbolic figure who led us from the First into the Second Industrial Revolution in which communication overtook transportation and the consumer outstripped the producer in status. Edison and his dynamo &"stand as transitional symbols between the brute snort of the locomotive and the soft dissonance of the computer.&"
Download or read book Reason written by Robert B. Reich and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2005-03-08 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For anyone who believes that liberal isn’t a dirty word but a term of honor, this book will be as revitalizing as oxygen. For in the pages of Reason, one of our most incisive public thinkers, and a former secretary of labor mounts a defense of classical liberalism that’s also a guide for rolling back twenty years of radical conservative domination of our politics and political culture. To do so, Robert B. Reich shows how liberals can: .Shift the focus of the values debate from behavior in the bedroom to malfeasance in the boardroom .Remind Americans that real prosperity depends on fairness .Reclaim patriotism from those who equate it with pre-emptive war-making and the suppression of dissent If a single book has the potential to restore our country’s good name and common sense, it’s this one.
Download or read book American Mythologies written by Manuel Peña and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-15 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Mythologies examines eleven myths that form part of the storehouse of present-day American mythologies, elucidating the nature of contemporary myths by investigating their ideological sub-terrain. Grounded in a semiological approach, which explores the displacement of information and the transformation of signs that characterise mythic communication, this book sheds light on the socio-economic, gendered, national and racial interests that lie behind myth-making. Presenting rich case studies from popular culture and public discourse, it demonstrates the manner in which these myths, and American mythology in general, promote the core values of everyday life under capitalism: rugged individualism, the unfettered right to accumulate wealth, the superior moral character of free-enterprise democracy, and its abundant opportunities for every citizen. By the same token, that same mythology negates the corruption endemic to the capitalist social order, an order that also promotes inescapable class, racial, and gender inequalities which confine the majority of Americans to a life of constant economic struggle. A fresh critique of the foundations of American culture, American Mythologies will appeal to those with interests in sociology, social and cultural theory, and cultural and media studies.
Download or read book Cultures and Globalization written by Helmut K Anheier and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2007-03-27 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the age of globalization we are no longer home alone. Migration brings other worlds into our own just as the global reach of the media transmits our world into the hearts and minds of others. Often incommensurate values are crammed together in the same public square. Increasingly we all today live in the kind of ′edge cultures′ we used to see only on the frontiers of civilizations in places like Hong Kong or Istanbul. The resulting frictions and fusions are shaping the soul of the coming world order. I can think of no other project with the ambitious scope of defining this emergent reality than The Cultures and Globalization project. I can think of no more capable minds than Raj Isar and Helmut Anheier who can pull it off." - Nathan Gardels, Editor-in-Chief, NPQ, Global Services, Los Angeles Times Syndicate/Tribune Media "This series represents an innovative approach to the central issues of globalization, that phenomenon of such undefined contours." - Lupwishi Mbuyumba, Director of the Observatory of Cultural Policies in Africa The world′s cultures and their forms of creation, presentation, and preservation are deeply affected by globalization in ways that are inadequately documented and understood. The Cultures and Globalization Series is designed to fill this void in our knowledge. Analyzing the relationship between globalization and cultures is the aim of the Series. In each volume, leading experts as well as young scholars will track cultural trends connected to globalization throughout the world, covering issues ranging from the role of cultural difference in politics and governance to the evolution of the cultural economy and the changing patterns of creativity and artistic expression. Each volume will also include an innovative presentation of newly developed ′indicator suites′ on cultures and globalization that will be presented in a user-friendly form with a high graphics content to facilitate accessibility and understanding Like so many phenomena linked to globalization, conflicts over and within the cultural realms crystallize great anxieties and illusions, through misplaced assumptions, inadequate concepts, unwarranted simplifications and instrumental readings. The aim here is to marshal evidence from different disciplines and perspectives about the culture, conflict and globalization relationships in conceptually sensitive ways.
