ISBN:
9780814753484
Language:
English
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource
Series Statement:
American History and Culture 1
DDC:
305.55
Abstract:
In the bustling cities of the mid-nineteenth-century Northeast, young male clerks working in commercial offices and stores were on the make, persistently seeking wealth, respect, and self-gratification. Yet these strivers and "counter jumpers" discovered that claiming the identities of independent men—while making sense of a volatile capitalist economy and fluid urban society—was fraught with uncertainty. In On the Make, Brian P. Luskey illuminates at once the power of the ideology of self-making and the important contests over the meanings of respectability, manhood, and citizenship that helped to determine who clerks were and who they would become. Drawing from a rich array of archival materials, including clerks’ diaries, newspapers, credit reports, census data, advice literature, and fiction, Luskey argues that a better understanding of clerks and clerking helps make sense of the culture of capitalism and the society it shaped in this pivotal era.
Note:
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)
DOI:
10.18574/nyu/9780814752289.001.0001
URL:
https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780814753484
URL:
Volltext
(URL des Erstveröffentlichers)
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