Culture in the Commercial Republic

by Will Morrisey Hillsdale College

Overview

This book discusses the cultural intentions of the founders of the first thoroughly commercial republic, the United States. The typical book on 'the culture' takes the view that commercial republicanism is the enemy of culture; this book tells a much more complex story, and measures the benefits and deficits of commercial republicanism in a way that does not sleight the very substantial achievements of commercial republicanism. The book looks at several critics of the commercial republic, 'left' and 'right'. These writers include Emerson, Whitman, Carlyle, Ruskin, Dewey, and Pound. The book concludes with chapters on two very different writers who take a comprehensive view of culture, nature, and the commercial republic: Allan Bloom and Jane Austen.
Contents: Acknowledgments; Preface; Introduction: The Statesmanlike Sources of American Culture; Victorians Contra Commerce; Natural Right and the American Intellectual; American Historicist-Poets: Holmes and Whitman; An American Fascist: Ezra Pound; The American Left and the Culture of Sophistry; An American Philosopher?; The Politics of Self-Knowledge: Mansfield Park and the Refounding of the English Aristocracy; Conclusion: The Arts of Satiation; Endnotes; Index; Biographical Note.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761802914
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	06/04/1996
Pages:	290
Product dimensions:	5.64(w) x 8.74(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Will Morrisey is Associate Editor of Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy (Queens College).

What People are Saying About This

Diana Schaub

"Few authors know how to combine political theory and literary criticism as perceptively as Will Morrisey. His book is trenchant, witty, and blissfully free of the jargon of either discipline...Morrisey is a commercial republican through and through. His Franklinesque equanimity charms, and his literary judgements supply proof--if proof is needed--that there are yankees who are also men of good taste."
— Diana Schaub

Ken Masugi

"Written with a verve familiar to his readers over the years, Morrisey's scintillating study combines the diverse talents of subtle insight into classic American literary texts with a comprehensive understanding of the political community which shaped them."
— Ken Masugi

Editorial Reviews

Written with a verve familiar to his readers over the years, Morrisey's scintillating study combines the diverse talents of subtle insight into classic American literary texts with a comprehensive understanding of the political community which shaped them.

Ken Masugi

Few authors know how to combine political theory and literary criticism as perceptively as Will Morrisey. His book is trenchant, witty, and blissfully free of the jargon of either discipline...Morrisey is a commercial republican through and through. His Franklinesque equanimity charms, and his literary judgements supply proof—if proof is needed—that there are yankees who are also men of good taste.

Diana Schaub