The American Civilizing Process (eBook)

Stephen Mennell is Professor of Sociology at University College Dublin.

Preface.

Prologue:.

1 'American Civilization'.

The Founding Fathers as Philosophes.

'Progress' and 'American
Civilization'.

Fugitive government and 'American Civilization'.

'Human nature' and 'American
Civilization'.

European absolutism and 'American Civilization'.

Conclusion.

2 'Fellow Americans' and Outsiders.

Others: the Native Americans.

Others: the Blacks.

Others: the Europeans.

Anti-Americanism: How the outsiders view the established.

Conclusion.

3 American Manners under Scrutiny.

American manners books.

Americans observed.

Technology, hygiene and deference.

Victorianism.

Informalization.

Conclusion.

4 American Aristocracies.

The colonial gentry.

The South: American Junkers?.

The North: Working upper classes.

From cumulative to dispersed inequalities?.

A significant absence: an aristocracy of office.

Conclusion.

5 The Market Society.

The constraints of the market.

The constraints of organization.

Conclusion.

6 Violence and Aggressiveness.

Long-term trends in violence.

Is America peculiarly violent?.

Capital punishment.

Conclusion.

7 And wilderness is paradise enow: From Settlements to
Independence.

Autarky, but not terra nullius.

Population.

Early phases of the American state formation process.

Conclusion.

8 Westward Look the Land is Bright: From Frontier to
Empire.

Manifest destiny and latent dynamics: a necessary theoretical
digression.

The balance between the planned and the unplanned in US
territorial expansion.

'Sovereignty' as a function of power ratios.

The Frontier.

Beyond manifest destiny: the beginnings of an American
empire.

Conclusion.

9 Integration Struggles.

Urbanization and resentment of the city.

Immigration.

Growth of the means of ruling.

The breakdown: the Civil War and its aftermath.

A central ambivalence: the armed forces.

Conclusion.

10 The Curse of the American Dream.

Equality and inequality in America.

The American welfare state.

Social mobility in America.

Conclusion: Upwards identification, not mutual
identification?.

11 Involvement, Detachment and American Religiosity.

Fantasy and the growth of knowledge.

American religion in long-term perspective.

Some explanations.

Odd one out - Europe or the USA?.

Conclusion.

12 America and Humanity as a Whole.

'American Social Character': Diminishing contrasts,
increasing varieties.

The problem of the American homo clausus: the We-I balance.

Market fundamentalism and diminishing foresight.

Functional de-democratization.

The American Empire.

Conclusion: path dependency in America and the world.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Index

"This book has a great potential for upsetting the sensibilities of
American graduate students and stimulating debate about the form
and development of American culture and social organization."

Theory and Society



"All in all, this is a book full of treasures that I would
recommend unreservedly."

Farhad Dalal, Group Analysis

"[A] work of immense scope, insight and erudition by a major
figure in sociology."

Andrew Linklater, International Affairs
"Guaranteed to be 'model setting' in its own right. All future
studies of civilising processes, which will hopefully include
analyses of such dynamics in rising powers such as China, India,
Brazil and so forth in the emerging post-Western international
system, can derive their bearings from this volume."

Figurations

"What makes Mennell's book exceptional is its theoretical
framework building on the elaborate theory of civilizing processes
developed by Norbert Elias (1897-1990), who elaborated his theory
on European state-formation processes."

Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft
"A broad and brave, yet incisive, exploration of the process of US
evolution, effectively mingling, and moving between, sociological
and cultural considerations with political and international
trends."

Irish Journal of American Studies

"Mennell has robustly put the American processes of civilization
through the demands of Elias-ian analysis."

Prometheus

"A very fine book indeed: a triumphant vindication of the
capacity of Elias's thesis to illuminate huge tracts of American
history and at the same time a highly original and independent work
which never follows the master slavishly but maintains its
intellectual independence, recognising the difficulties which
Elias's theories sometimes raise, and abounding in fresh insights
of its own. It is also beautifully lucid and agreeably
unpretentious in tone."

Sir Keith Thomas, All Souls College, Oxford

"Written in a beautifully lucid and lively style, this book
should be read by all who seek to understand a fascinating as well
as important country."

John A. Thompson, St Catharine's College,
Cambridge

"This is a book that is long overdue. Norbert Elias pioneered
analysis of the civilizing process that helped make modern Europe.
But just how much America is distinct has been both historically
contested and conceptually unclear. Stephen Mennell brings
considerable insight in this thoughtful reconsideration of the
American story in light of Elias's originally European
framework."

Craig Calhoun, New York University

"Stephen Mennell, an outstanding disciple of the great
sociologist Norbert Elias, employs the latter's insights to look at
the USA. Using the idea of state-formation along with that of the
civilizing process, the result is a wide-ranging treatment of the
sole contemporary superpower that has both scholarly merit and an
enormous relevance to the present moment. Filled with insights,
combining theory and empirical observations, and offering a
judicious comparison with other countries of America and its claim
to exceptionalism, the result is a splendid contribution to
history, sociology and international relations."

Bruce Mazlish, MIT