This book was a pretty straight-forward and cogently argued piece on the transformation of American society around the turn of the 20th century. Trachtenberg focuses on the development of American culture at the time as being pushed by the technological and industrial processes that were driving economic development.
The argument is really focused on the development of the bourgeois culture of the time - the analysis of working-class culture is more muted. In fact, Trachtenberg's subtext is that bourgeois culture becomes American culture. Certainly, this is played out in the literature of the time (as opposed to the dime novels). In any case, Trachtenberg examines this new American culture through the other impacts of industrialization on America - Westward expansion, mechanization, labor, urbanization, politics and literature.
The final chapter is focused on what Trachtenberg sees as the culminating point of this new culture (after which, I think he would argue, it enters a period of denouement) - White City. White City was the center piece of the Chicago's World Fair of 1893. The city of the fair was white - made of plaster that lasted only for about as long as the fair lasted, several months. However, it was also a very "White" city, in that it was meant to exhibit the crowning achievements of White American civilization (in arts, industry, etc.). It was contrasted with an exhibit area outside of the city for the uncivilized, savage cultures of the non-White parts of the world.
Trachtenberg does an excellent job of showing how the process of Othering the savage is integral to the development of bourgeois American culture. The foundations of American culture in the 20th century are laid here, not far removed from the Civil War and its aftermath
No comments:
Post a Comment