The American Bourgeoisie: Distinction and Identity in the Nineteenth Century

by Sven Beckert (Editor), J. Rosenbaum (Editor)

This volume engages a fundamental disciplinary question about this period in American history: how did the bourgeoisie consolidate their power and fashion themselves not simply as economic leaders but as cultural innovators and arbiters? It also explains how culture helped Americans form both a sense of shared identity and a sense of difference.

293 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

The Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University, Sven Beckert is co-chair of the Program on the Study of Capitalism at Harvard and co-chair of the Weatherhead Initiative on Global History. Professor Beckert researches and teaches the history of the United States in the 19th century, with a particular emphasis on the history of capitalism, including its economic, social, political, and transnational dimensions. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Cullman Center at the New York Public Library, among others.

Reviews

[Chris Tolve · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of essays analyzing the process of cultural class formation of the Bourgeoisie in the United States throughout the 19th century. It is a pivotal period during which the capitalist class consolidated and began to distinguish itself not simply as an economic relation, but as an exclusive cultural group. I would not recommend this for non-academic audiences; overall, the book is rather boring, though there are a few more exceptional essays within it, and it contains nuggets of fascinating detail about the history of certain institutions and their relation to class culture. I had no idea how ideologically loaded the organization of a super market or the interior design of a house is.