The Rise of American Civilization by Mary R. Beard
"The Rise of American Civilization" by Mary R. Beard is a comprehensive examination of the development of American society from its indigenous roots to the onset of technocracy. The work, initially published in two volumes in 1927 and later condensed into a single volume, stands out for its blend of scholarly rigor and accessible narrative. The authors explore the significant social, political, agricultural, and industrial factors shaping American civilization, emphasizing the roles of diverse groups, including women, in these processes. They categorize American history into Agricultural and Industrial eras, illustrating how different motivations and experiences influenced settlement and expansion.
The Beards challenge traditional historical narratives by presenting a non-linear chronology, focusing instead on thematic elements. Their analysis includes the economic dynamics between regions, the impact of immigration, and the transformative effects of the Civil War, which they redefine as a social conflict rather than merely a military struggle. Additionally, they critique the perceptions of democracy and power within the evolving American landscape. The book is both intellectually enriching and thought-provoking, making it a valuable resource for those seeking to understand the complexities of American history. Readers can expect a nuanced portrayal that invites reflection on the country's past while acknowledging the diverse perspectives that shaped it.
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The Rise of American Civilization by Mary R. Beard
First published: 1927
Type of work: Economic and social history
Time of work: Prehistoric times through the Hoover administration
Locale: The United States and the world influenced by it
Principal Personages:
George Washington John Adams Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Franklin Andrew Jackson Abraham Lincoln Daniel Webster William Mckinley Theodore Roosevelt Woodrow Wilson Herbert Hoover
Analysis
Here is a brilliant and stimulating survey of the factors composing American civilization from the Indian aborigines to the advent of technocracy, written by a pair of historians who can combine scholarship with a popular presentation, interpret rather than describe, and select the significant moments of half a millennium of existence. It is an epic, not of a hero but of a land and people, a work heroic in the sweep of its conception and its orderly unfolding. Proof of its acceptance by historians of varying schools of thought lies in the fact that the original two-volume edition of 1927, after going through ten reprintings, was revised and enlarged into one volume of 1,717 pages in 1934, followed by many subsequent printings, and sold at a quarter of its original price.
Only the big, clear, and easily read print and the attractive sketches scattered through its pages compensate for the fatigue of holding this three-pound volume. However, having begun the reading of its neatly turned sentences, well chosen quotations, and incisive comments that constantly appear to challenge and illuminate, the user forgets physical discomfort. One reviewer termed it “appallingly learned, stirringly enlightening, and movingly humane.” However, the reader quickly forgets to think critically of its presentation in the interest in what is being presented.
In the Introduction to the college edition, the editors promise a departure from the traditional method of tracing American history from Columbus to Hoover. Only roughly does chronology shape its presentation. It has a wide field to cover. American civilization is made up of social aspects as well as political, intellectual, agricultural, and industrial factors. Basically the authors divide their study into the Agricultural and the Industrial eras. But like the Greek Anaximander, they see history as an ocean throwing out new forms and beings that are swallowed and allowed to reappear.
In the first chapter, the Beards quote many philosophic attitudes toward changes in history. Diverse were the motives of those who came to settle America and establish or change its patterns. Colonizers who wanted to hang onto bits of their homeland and those seeking separation and independence both played their part. Since many of the original settlers were English, the Beards devote the first four chapters to English characteristics and contributions. In this regard, they strike an original note for, unlike many historians, they stress the part played by women. Perhaps Mrs. Beard made it necessary for the index to include eighteen entries for the role of women among pioneers and developers, and their influence appears many more times in tracing the growth of home, education, and religion.
America was no place for slackers or lazy people. From Capt. Smith onward came demands for immigrants not afraid of soiling their hands. And they were rewarded. Workers, say the authors, could make up to $75,000 a year from tobacco crops in the South. By contrast, the “niggardly soil of Massachusetts” was a factor in driving its settlers away to settle Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and points further west.
Another factor in expansion was big families. Cheap land encouraged early marriages. Children became economic assets to work it, and it was a population explosion, rather than a flood of immigrants from Europe, that increased the number of inhabitants. In one of their many interpretive comments, the Beards offer the case of the centenarian, Mary Hazzard of Rhode Island, who, at her death, could count five hundred children, grand children, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren. Two hundred and five of them, including one granddaughter who “had been a grandmother nearly fifteen years,” attended Mary Hazzard’s funeral.
Other labor was performed by semi-servile whites imported under bond for a term of years and by Negroes sold into chattel slavery. The historians estimate that half the immigrants into America outside of New England before the Revolution were of these two groups.
The attitude of the royal governors was that England’s ruling class should benefit from the colonies. Thus, an attempt was made to force the colonists to buy only from England. If there was to be foreign trade, it should be to the eventual profit of the English. Despite this situation, provincial America expanded.
Unable to deal in depth with all periods of growth, the Beards have selected typical and significant moments. From vast stores of facts gathered by a century of researchers, they picture provincial America. They mention the hot rum and rich wines on the tables of both the wealthy planters of the South and the strictest merchants and noblest divines of Boston. They note the equal condemnation in Virginia and Massachusetts of skepticism in religion and of the delights of the flesh. As evidence of the high degree of learning, they cite the sale of one hundred thousand copies of Thomas Paine’s pamphlet demanding independence.
Concerning the next period, the Revolution, the Beards grant that many theories exist as to its cause. They try to show the validity and falsity inherent in many of these. But little space is devoted to fighting the war. Believing that by the time a reader takes up this book he will have been guided many times through the stories of its battles and heroes, they cover its main events and many by-products in a single chapter, on their way to a treatment of the problems of the new Republic.
The rise of national political parties preceded the struggle for empire that grew out of agricultural expansion and the need for world markets. This, rather than commercial motives (since America had little manufacturing), was to blame in the eyes of the historians for the War of 1812 against England. The Louisiana Purchase, too, had its inception in the love of the soil. Out of the new territory came the creation of half a dozen new agricultural states. This gave rise to the formation of the Farmer-Labor political party and the election, in 1828, of a son of the soil, Andrew Jackson, as President of the United States. The disposal of public land became, along with the tariff, his most pressing concern.
The Beards show how the expansion westward toward the Pacific Ocean shifted the balance of power. Not until the Whigs could achieve an effective union with Western farmers in 1860, under the name of Republicans, did they regain power.
Trouble with Mexico, resulting in the acquiring of the vast expanse of Texas, brought the prospect of a number of new commonwealths, each capable of sending to Washington two slave-state senators to balance the newly-arriving free-state senators from Michigan, Iowa, and elsewhere. Calhoun, as the historians point out, seeking to perpetuate the Constitution and save the Union, only reopened the sectional controversy that eventually destroyed chattel bondage.
Chapter XV, “The Politics of the Economic Drift,” is a thoughtful study of the steps that divided the Republic into three sections. The capitalists of the Northeast needed a liberal immigrant policy to insure cheap labor. The planters and the farmers joined in opposing the capitalists because they had interests in common. The farmers battled for domestic trade and the Southern planters needed foreign markets. They differed in their attitude toward the tariff that had five times been revised between 1830 and 1860, mostly downward. If the complex economic problems of the fast developing nation can be simplified, the Beards have done it here.
The final chapter of volume one, “Democracy: Romantic and Realistic,” is an exercise in nomenclature. Those, like de Tocqueville, who tried to characterize the American development, interpreted it in the light of their own background.
Part II, “The Industrial Era,” heralds the approach of the irrepressible conflict. The authors call that conflict “The Second American Revolution.” They object to the term “War of Rebellion” with its stigma of treason against the South. Equally unacceptable to them is “War Between the States,” since in some cases it was a guerrilla war within states and in others a split in the state. They lead up to the conflict by showing each side as sure of the justice of its position. The Missouri Compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision serve to reinforce their opinion. Actually, say the Beards, it was a social war, resulting in the rearrangement of classes, wealth, and industrial development. In keeping with their broad view of history, hardly a battle is mentioned and none described. Once again the contributions of women and the resulting change in their status are considered.
Following the war, by whatever name it is called, came a rounding out of the continent and the triumph of business enterprise. Unfortunately, the presence in the South of so many freed slaves brought special phases of agriculture, like the “cropping system” and others, all inefficient. Even today, the authors declare, the acre value of Southern farms is less than at the end of the war. Unable to handle machinery, the Negroes moved northward, creating new problems.
Cheap land was gone. With no more frontiers, Americans had to look beyond their borders in search of development. Within the nation, this agricultural revolution made farmers subject to the processes of capitalistic society.
The Gilded Age that followed brought a juxtaposition of wealth and poverty—no new thing, say the authors, citing similar situations from Greece and Rome to England and Mexico City. Out of the increased riches and might came Imperial America and an effort to create a balance of power. The Machine Age came next, and the Beards end their survey with Hoover and the approaching depression.
Besides the maps, a selective bibliography of forty pages that omits obvious sources and fifty columns of index complete this ideal history for the intelligent layman. Some may feel that the attempt to combine the academic with the popular results occasionally in letting literary expression replace profundity of thought. But for most readers, the facts and explanations are so well combined that explanations come to appear as facts. There may be a difference of opinion about some of their conclusions, but that would be inevitable in such a large-scale interpretation of history.
Much of the material has been covered elsewhere, but here it is skillfully combined with new matter in a crisp and interesting style. Because the Beards have been accurate and scholarly in collecting, temperate and judicial in statement, and sensitive to injustice, some reviewers have been led to place this pair of serious historians in the class with Parkman, Motley, and Prescott. At all events, their study is well worth reading.