Because we are the heirs of their democratic rise, it is difficult for us to appreciate the immense struggle these mechanics and artisans endured in establishing their self-esteem and worth in the face of the age-old scorn in which their mean occupations were held. Everywhere their claims of equality were met with genteel disbelief and “consummate and unbearing haughtiness.”15 Yet, in one of the great expressions of the democratic revolution of these years, they persevered and eventually transformed American culture. They brought aristocratic leisure into contempt and turned labor into a
...more
