Description
Book SynopsisExamining the intense conflict between financial success and moral righteousness in nineteenth-century America
Trade Review"Serious students of antebellum America will certainly appreciate this fine book."--
Journal of Southern History"This original and enjoyable work will stimulate debate on an important issue and era: the conflict Americans faced in the 1850s between righteous behavior and the drive for financial success."--Ronald T. Farrar, author of
A Creed for My Profession: Walter Williams, Journalist to the World"
Paradoxes of Prosperity fills a gap in what we know about American culture, philosophical thought, and media during the decade just before the American Civil War. This book makes an essential contribution to our understanding of the competing philosophical beliefs during an era of American culture that historians have seriously slighted in the pursuit of studying the Civil War."--Hazel Dicken-Garcia, coauthor of
Hated Ideas and the American Civil War PressTable of ContentsForeword; Introduction; Chapter 1: Communicating the Prosperity-Morality Paradox during the Mid-Nineteenth Century Publishing Boom; Chapter 2: New York's Newspaper Giants during the Anxious 1850's; Chapter 3:Two Newspapers, South and West; Chapter 4: Harper's Magazine and The Southern Literary Messenger: Self-Styled; Guardians of the Republic; Chapter 5: Godey's Lady's Book: The Guide for Middle Class Women; Chapter 6: Merchant Magazines: The Businessman's Guide and Conscience; Chapter 7: Women Writers: Defending the Christian Republic; Chapter 8: Male Writers: Wrestling with the Marketplace; Chapter 9: Past Times and Far Away Places; Epilogue
