Aristocracy in America: From the Sketch-Book of a German Nobleman
Francis J. Grund, Armin Mattes
In Jacksonian America, as Grund exposes, the wealthy inhabitants of northern cities and the plantation South may have been willing to accept their poorer neighbors as political and legal peers, but rarely as social equals. In this important work, he thus sheds light on the nature of the struggle between “aristocracy” and “democracy” that loomed so large in early republican Americans’ minds.
Francis J. Grund, a German emigrant, was one of the most influential journalists in America in the three decades preceding the Civil War. He also wrote several books, including this fictional, satiric travel memoir in response to Alexis de Tocqueville’s famousDemocracy in America. Armin Mattes provides a thorough account of Grund’s dynamic engagement in American political life, and brings to light many of Grund’s reflections on American social and political life previously published only in German.Mattes shows how Grund’s work can expand our understanding of the emerging democratic political culture and society in the antebellum United States.
Francis J. Grund, a German emigrant, was one of the most influential journalists in America in the three decades preceding the Civil War. He also wrote several books, including this fictional, satiric travel memoir in response to Alexis de Tocqueville’s famousDemocracy in America. Armin Mattes provides a thorough account of Grund’s dynamic engagement in American political life, and brings to light many of Grund’s reflections on American social and political life previously published only in German.Mattes shows how Grund’s work can expand our understanding of the emerging democratic political culture and society in the antebellum United States.
Categories:
Year:
2018
Publisher:
University of Missouri
Language:
english
Pages:
452
ISBN 10:
0826221564
ISBN 13:
9780826221568
Series:
Studies in Constitutional Democracy
File:
PDF, 1.78 MB
IPFS:
,
english, 2018