"In his masterful two-volume study Democracy in America, Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville invented the word "individualism" to describe a new sort of secular striving he observed in the United States and used the term "self-interest rightly understood"- a Franklinesque construction that emphasized the practical value of moral precepts like reciprocity and (temporary) self-denial- as the credo of American life." Jim Cullen in The American Dream (pg. 69)
This is the sentence that I picked out of Cullen's chapter that I thought was complicated, yet works for the reader. It's a lengthy sentence that is packed with different ideas and multiple terms necessary in getting his point across while defining those terms and connecting them to people/ideas that he talked about in the text preceding this sentence. Like Hatch and McLoughlin, Cullen emphasizes the way individual, common people obtained agency and started calling the shots instead of clergy and scholars (around the time of the 2nd Great Awakening), but Cullen involves different examples from American history like Franklin and Jackson. I also liked that he involved the institution of slavery and how that impacted the South's idea of a self-made man and individualism.
Also, Deane- I went home over the weekend for a family thing and inevitably got stuck in this lovely blizzard. So if I'm not in class tomorrow, I'm either trying to brave my way back to Northfield or am still stuck in Minneapolis. Just thought you should know. :)
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