The Fictional Republic: Horatio Alger and American Political DiscourseOxford University Press, 1994 M04 14 - 13 pages Investigating the persistence and place of the formulas of Horatio Alger in American politics, The Fictional Republic reassesses the Alger story in its Gilded Age context. Carol Nackenoff argues that Alger was a keen observer of the dislocations and economic pitfalls of the rapidly industrializing nation, and devised a set of symbols that addressed anxieties about power and identity. As classes were increasingly divided by wealth, life chances, residence space, and culture, Alger maintained that Americans could still belong to one estate. The story of the youth who faces threats to his virtue, power, independence, and identity stands as an allegory of the American Republic. Nackenoff examines how the Alger formula continued to shape political discourse in Reagan's America and beyond. |
Contents
| 3 | |
2 A Unitarian Project for Moral Guidance | 12 |
Character and the Battle for Youth | 33 |
4 Guidebooks for Survival in an Industrializing Economy | 53 |
5 Saved From the Factory | 78 |
6 Technology Organizations Corporations and Capitalists | 93 |
Authority Power and Politics | 110 |
Algers Interventions in the Market | 133 |
Searching for Algers Audience in the Literary Marketplace | 181 |
Power Powerlessness and Gender | 206 |
12 Culture Wars | 227 |
Algers Appeal to the American Political Imagination | 261 |
Notes | 272 |
References | 336 |
| 354 | |
| 357 | |
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The Fictional Republic: Horatio Alger and American Political Discourse Carol Nackenoff Limited preview - 1994 |
Common terms and phrases
advice manual Alger hero Alger novels Alger stories Alger to Irving Alger's fiction antebellum appeared Athens audience Boston capitalist Chapter character cheap claim corporation culture Dean Dunham democracy democratic dime novels discourse economic Edwin Forrest elites employer factory Forrest Gilded Age Gold Standard Halttunen Harvard Henry Horatio Alger industrial influence Irving Blake labor Lectures to Young literary literature living Loring Luke Walton Mass Mechanic Accents melodrama moral nature nineteenth century Painted Women Pinkerton poor popular production Public Libraries published quoted Ragged Dick readers reading reform Republic Republican Rolling Stone Scharnhorst Scharnhorst with Bales serialized social society story papers Street & Smith street boys struggle Student and Schoolmate success T. S. Arthur tastes theater tramp Unitarian Conscience University virtue W. R. Alger wealth Whigs William Makepeace Thayer William Rounseville Alger working-class writing York youth