The “Yankee of Yankees” might, in Philadelphia, actually be a British or Irish immigrant, but the essentials did not vary much with ethnicity or nativity. These were practical men, enamored of new technologies, and they admired other practical men who got their hands dirty. They thought their ability to manage their firms depended on their grasp of constantly changing tools and problems of production. Their workers, in turn, prided themselves on their skill, knowledge, and independence. They expected their competence and their ideas of manliness to be respected.
