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The Emergence of the Mass Society: The Standardization of American Culture, 1830–1920

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2009

Garth S. Jowett
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Extract

One of the great intellectual debates in the nineteenth century in the United States concerned the American preoccupation with European culture and, perhaps more important, the continued use of European critical standards to judge the quality of indigenous American culture. There is a great deal of truth in Walt Whitman's lament above, for a truly American high culture had yet to emerge, and American popular culture was still very much in its formative stages and under the influence of European trends (witness the enormous popularity of Charles Dickens and Sir Walter Scott). Only in the realm of folk culture had a rich, and by now Americanized, tradition emerged in the period before the Civil War. This is an interesting point, for after nearly two hundred years in the New World, American folk culture (especially folk humor) was now quite independent, whereas American high culture was still beholden to Europe for its inspiration and ideals. This clearly demonstrates that folk culture emerges from an affinity with everyday cultural expression and is closely identified with its creators, whereas high culture is based on a rigid set of (sometimes arbitrary) standards, which can be imposed from outside, with little regard for community cultural needs. Thus, the existing folklore was the result of the unique American experience, and while elements of the older European folk cultures were still visible, these had undergone the transformations caused by a new environment and were now fully integrated into the “frontier” culture of the new land.

Type
Research Article
Information
Prospects , Volume 7 , October 1982 , pp. 207 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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References

NOTES

1. For further discussion of American folklore in this context, see Dorson, Richard M., American Folklore (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959)Google Scholar, and Rourke, Constance, The Roots of American Culture (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1942).Google Scholar

2. For a detailed description of the difficulties in establishing an indigenous literature, see Nye, Russel B., The Cultural Life of the New Nation (New York: Harper & Row, 1960)Google Scholar, especially chap. 11, “The Quest for a National Literature.” Nye points out that as late as 1830 only one book in three sold in the United States came from an American press.

3. Cipolla, Carlo M., Literacy and Development in the West (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1969), pp. 93–94.Google Scholar

4. O'Brien, Frank M., The Story of the Sun (New York: George H. Doran, 1918), p. 31.Google Scholar

5. Emery, Edwin, The Press and America, 3d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972), p. 150.Google Scholar

6. For a detailed description of the earlier attempts to establish a penny press, see Emery, , The Press and America, pp. 160–66Google Scholar, and Kobre, Sidney, Development of American Journalism (Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown, 1969), pp. 195–224.Google Scholar

7. Kobre, , American Journalism, p. 224.Google Scholar

8. Emery, , in The Press and AmericaGoogle Scholar, notes that in the 1830s, thirty-five penny papers were started in New York, but all except the Sun and the Herald succumbed. By 1840 the four largest American cities had penny papers (p. 174).

9. While the notion of “loss of community” is one usually applied to themodern era (post-1890s), there is no reason why it should not be applied to urban congregations in earlier periods. For additional information on this idea, see Baltzell, E. Digby, ed., The Search for Community in Modern America (New York: Harper & Row, 1968)Google Scholar; Stein, Maurice R., The Eclipse of Community (New York: Harper & Row, 1960)Google Scholar; and Effrat, Marcia Pelly, ed., The Community: Approaches and Applications (New York: Free Press, 1974).Google Scholar

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11. The manufacturing-capacity, or industrial, city was not developed until after 1840. See the excellent historical treatment in Pred, Allan R., The Spatial Dynamics of U.S. Urban-Industrial Growth, 1800–1914 (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1966), pp. 143–215.Google Scholar

12. Kobre, , American Journalism, pp. 225–26.Google Scholar

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15. Kraus, Richard, Recreation and Leisure in Modern Society (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1971), p. 171.Google Scholar

16. The issue and importance of the declining workweek is examined in detail in Zeisel, Joseph S., “The Workweek in American Industry,” in Larrabee, Eric and Meyersohn, Rolf, eds., Mass Leisure (Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1958), pp. 145–53.Google Scholar

17. For an interesting examination of information flows in the American city during this period, see Mandelbaum, Seymour J., Boss Tweed's New York (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1965)Google Scholar. Mandelbaum shows how the “boss” system functioned as an efficient communications system.

18. The early history of the telegraph has received much attention. Among the best histories of this period is Harlow, Alvin F., Old Wires and New Waves: The History of the Telegraph, Telephone, and Wireless (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1936)Google Scholar. For more technical histories, see Fahie, J. J., A History of Electric Telegraphy to the Year 1837 (London, 1884; rpt. New York: Arno Press, 1974)Google Scholar, and Reid, James D., The Telegraph in America (Albany, N.Y., 1870; rpt. New York: Arno Press, 1974).Google Scholar

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21. For further information on these developments, see Field, Henry M., The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph (New York, 1893; rpt. New York: Arno Press, 1972)Google Scholar, and Rhodes, Frederick L., Beginnings of Telephony (New York: Harper & Bros., 1929; rpt. New York: Arno Press, 1974).Google Scholar

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23. Emery, , The Press and America, 2d ed., 1962, p. 351.Google Scholar

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26. For an interesting examination of the economic implications of this shift, see the discussion in Mandelbaum, Seymour J., Community and Communications (New York: W. W. Norton, 1972), pp. 34–35.Google Scholar

27. The movies in particular were scrutinized and attacked. See Jowett, Garth, Film: The Democratic Art (Boston: Little, Brown, 1976)Google Scholar, which discusses this issue at length. The McClellan incident is described on pp. 111–13.

28. Wiebe, Robert H., The Search for Order (New York: Hill & Wang, 1967), p. 170Google Scholar. This is an important and valuable study of the changes in American society in the period 1870 to 1920. See also Hays, Samuel P., The Response to Industrialism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957)Google Scholar, and for an excellent summary, O'Neill, William L., The Progressive Years (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1975)Google Scholar. In recent years the whole concept of “progressivism” has been called into question. See Wiebe, Robert H., “The Progressive Years, 1900–1917,” in Cartwright, William H. and Watson, Richard L. Jr., eds., The Reinterpretation of American History (Washington, D.C.: National Council for Social Studies, 1973), pp. 425–42.Google Scholar

29. Griffen, Clyde, “The Progressive Ethos,” in Coben, Stanley and Ratner, Lorman, eds., The Development of an American Culture (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970), pp. 144–45Google Scholar. See also the excellent treatment in May, Henry F., The End of American Innocence (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959).Google Scholar

30. For details of the history of popular song in this period, see Ewen, David, The Life and Death of Tin Pan Alley (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1964).Google Scholar

31. Emery, , The Press and America, p. 443Google Scholar. For detailed information on the history of newspaper consolidations, see pp. 441–63 therein.

32. Carey, James W., “The Communications Revolution and the Professional Communicator,” in The Sociological Review Monograph, No. 13 (01 1969), 32–33Google Scholar. This is an extremely useful article, with many important observations.

33. Ibid., p. 27.

34. The two most useful histories of advertising are Presbrey, Frank, The History and Development of Advertising (New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1929)Google Scholar, and Wood, James Playsted, The Story of Advertising (New York: Ronald Press, 1958)Google Scholar. Both are well worth examining but tend to be uncritical.

35. Presbrey, , History and Development of Advertising, p. 195.Google Scholar

36. Ibid., p. 267.

37. Ewen, Stuart, Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976), p. 45Google Scholar. This is an important reinterpretation of the role of advertising in American life.

38. Lynd, Robert S. and Lynd, Helen Merrell, Middletown (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1929), p. 82, n. 18.Google Scholar

39. Barnouw, Erik, The Sponsor (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), p. 4.Google Scholar

40. Lewis, Sinclair, Babbitt (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1922), p. 2.Google Scholar

41. McLuhan, Marshall, The Mechanical Bride (New York: Vanguard Press, 1951), p. vGoogle Scholar. In typical McLuhan fashion, this book has some interesting and outrageous things to say about various types of mass culture.

42. Denney, Reuel, “The Discovery of the Popular Culture,” in Spiller, Robert E. and Larrabee, Eric, eds., American Perspectives: The National Self-image in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1961), p. 155Google Scholar. This is a useful examination of the increasing academic interest in popular culture, and of the gradual realization of its importance in American life.