The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities

This lively and authoritative volume makes clear that the quest for taste and manners in America has been essential to the serious pursuit of a democratic culture Spanning the material world from mansions and silverware to etiquette books, city planning, and sentimental novels, Richard L Bushman shows how a set of values originating in aristocratic court culture gradually permeated almost every stratum of American society and served to prevent the hardening of class consciousness A work of immense and richly nuanced learning, The Refinement of America newly illuminates every facet of both our artifacts and our values. Free Read [ The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities ] author [ Richard L. Bushman ] – kino-fada.fr Horace Bushnell, a congregationalist minister, was one of the people who attempted to resolve some of the contradictions between belief in a republican form of government and an emulation of the gentility handed down from european monarchies I found this interesting The creation of human taste, he went on to say with astounding confidence, were extensions of the original divine creative ...I enjoyed this one so much that I chose to apply Bushman s main thesis to the settlement of Maine for one of my final papers Granted, this is pretty dense, and not every chapter is enthralling all the way through The wealth of information Bushman packs into this thing, though, is pretty impressive I don t see how he could cover anything else, he gets to fancy houses in eighteenth century Delaware, courtesy books, grand staircases and gardens, the fancifying of the old stodgy New England meet I enjoyed this one so much that I chose to apply Bushman s main thesis to the settlement of Maine for one of my final papers Granted, this is pretty dense, and not every chapter is enthralling all the way through The wealth of information Bushman packs into this thing, though, is pretty impressive I don t see how he could cover anything else, he gets to fancy houses in eighteenth century Delaware, courtesy books, grand staircas...In his 1992 work The Refinement of America Richard Bushman proposes that an aristocratic culture of gentility shaped early American society and capitalism Drawing on the material culture of 18th and 19th century American city planning, architecture, fashions and luxury objects Bushman traces its progressive diffusion from the colonial elite into the middle class of the early republic From its inception in the styles of the aristocratic courts that clustered around centralizing monarchs in the In his 1992 work The Refinement of America Richard Bushman proposes that an aristocratic culture of gentility shaped early American society and capitalism Drawing on the material culture of 18th and 19th century American city planning, architecture, fashions and luxury objects Bushman traces its progressive diffusion from the colonial elite into the middle class of the early republic From its inception in the styles of the aristocratic courts that clustered around centralizing monarchs in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the refined lifestyle, turning on artful words, fashions, manners and possessions was tied to social aspira...I found this book really eye opening It helped me understand a great deal about how we live now and how we got where we are For instance, I could see why we all have living rooms that we don t use So the book offered a unique bridge from the past to the present.Bushman has done a wonderful job of examining material culture and the idea of refinement in 18th century etiquette books At the level of an physical description and examination of homes, churches, gardens, and the layout of cities it is endlessly interesting and includes wonderful illustrations He traces the American absorption of aristocratic forms of behavior and living On the level of analysis it is a bit hamhanded, giving little time to works that examine things like class, religion, con Bushman has done a wonderful job of examining...American colonists had an obsessive desire to achieve gentility They tried to refine themselves and be British Why did the parlor become so important Wealthy families built mansions, European goods, mastering polite behavior, handwriting, body, speech, dress Obsessive desire to achieve gentility Americans used to be functional, in two room houses Now they re in mansions, parlors, etc Social life was an unrelenting performance Big parlors, grand staircases, balls, concerts The low American colonists had an obsessive desire to achieve gentility They tried to refine themselves and be British Why did the parlor become so important Wealthy families built mansions, European goods, mastering polite behavior, handwriting, body, speech, dress Obsessive desire to achieve gentility Americans used to be functional, in two room houses Now they re in mansions, ...I would have given this book 4.5 stars if I could If you re interested in cultural rather than political history generals and kings , this is a book for you There are chapters that lean towards the academic dense with specific detail but don t let that stop you from reading on The idea that gentility, which started in the aristocratic life of Italy, filtered down through the British gentry and American businessmen to farm houses and immigrant log cabins is a remarkable story Was your o I would have given this book 4.5 stars if I could If you re interested in cultural rather than political history generals and kings , this is a book for you There are chapters that lean towards the academic dense with specific detail but don t let that stop you from reading on The idea that gentility, which started in the aristocratic life of Italy, filtered down through the British gentry and American businessmen to farm houses and immigrant log cabins is a remarkable story Was your or a friend s ...By the early years of the 19th century, members of the emerging bourgeois class were increasingly preoccupied with the acquisition and display of particular modes of behavior and kinds of objects associated with the civilized genteel culture of the old aristocracy a culture of refinement Carter 30 Possessions made the man and status of people communities ...A very entertaining book that goes into a lot of interesting depth about the role manners and material culture played among ambitious Americans in the colonial period It also makes strong connections to how many of these objects styles modes of thought derived from European practices It s not as strong in talking about political and social context in America, in distinguis...I learned a lot about the culture of the American elite through the mid 19th century, and how that is reflected in their possessions, houses, and city development However, it is a very academic book The first two chapters were a difficult introduction, if you are unfa...

• English
• 11 November 2017
Richard L. Bushman
• Paperback
• 504 pages
• 0679744142
• Richard L. Bushman
• The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities