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The New Nation Anita Vickers GREENWOOD PRESS The New Nation The New Nation Anita Vickers AmericanPopularCultureThroughHistory RayB.Browne,SeriesEditor GREENWOODPRESS Westport,Connecticut • London LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Vickers,Anita,1952– Thenewnation / AnitaVickers. p.cm.—(Americanpopularculturethroughhistory) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN0–313–31264–8(alk.paper) 1. UnitedStates—Civilization—1783–1865. 2. Popularculture—United States—History—18thcentury. 3. Popularculture—UnitedStates—History—19th century. I. Title. II. Series. E164.V53 2002 973—dc21 2001054701 BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationDataisavailable. Copyright(cid:1)2002byAnitaVickers Allrightsreserved.Noportionofthisbookmaybe reproduced,byanyprocessortechnique,withoutthe expresswrittenconsentofthepublisher. LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:2001054701 ISBN:0–313–31264–8 Firstpublishedin2002 GreenwoodPress,88PostRoadWest,Westport,CT06881 AnimprintofGreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc. www.greenwood.com PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica TM Thepaperusedinthisbookcomplieswiththe PermanentPaperStandardissuedbytheNational InformationStandardsOrganization(Z39.48–1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Series Foreword by Ray B. Browne vii Introduction ix Timeline of Popular Culture Events xiii Part One Life and Youth During the New Nation 1 1 Everyday America 3 2 World of Youth 39 Part Two Popular Culture of the New Nation 53 3 Advertising 55 4 Architecture 65 5 Fashion 89 6 Food 107 7 Leisure Activities 123 8 Literature 149 9 Music 179 10 Performing Arts 199 vi Contents 11 Travel 217 12 Visual Arts 235 Cost of Products in the New Nation 257 Notes 261 Further Reading 277 Index 285 Series Foreword Popularcultureisthesystemofattitudes,behavior,beliefs,customs,and tastes that defines the people of any society. It is the entertainments, diversions, icons, rituals, and actions that shape the everyday world. It is what we do while we are awake and what we dream about whilewe areasleep.Itisthewayoflifeweinherit,practice,change,andthenpass on to our descendants. Popular culture is an extension of folk culture, the culture of the peo- ple. Withtheriseofelectronicmediaandtheincreaseincommunication in American culture, folk culture expanded into popular culture—the daily way of life as shaped by the popular majority of society. Especially in a democracy like the United States, popular culture has become both the voice of the people and the force that shapes the nation. In 1782, the French commentator Hector St. Jean de Cre`vecoeur asked in his Letters fromanAmericanFarmer,“WhatisanAmerican?”Heansweredthatsuch a person is the creation of America and is in turn the creator of the country’s culture. Indeed, notions of the American Dream have been long grounded in the dream of democracy—that is, government by the people, or popular rule. Thus, popular culture is tied fundamentally to America and the dreams of its people. Historically, culture analysts have tried to fine-tune culture into two categories: “elite”—the elements of culture (fine art, literature, classical music, gourmet food, etc.) that supposedly define the best of society— and “popular”—the elements of culture (comic strips, best-sellers, pop music, fast food, etc.) that appeal to society’s lowest common denomi- nator. The so-called educated person approved of elite culture and scoffed at popular culture. This schismfirstbegantodevelopinwestern viii SeriesForeword Europe in the fifteenth century when the privileged classes tried to dis- cover and develop differences in societies based on class, money, privi- lege, and lifestyles. Like many aspects of European society, the debate betweeneliteandpopularculturescametotheUnitedStates.Theupper class in America, for example, supported museums and galleries that would exhibit the finer things in life, that would elevate people. As the twenty-firstcenturyemerges,however,thedistinctionsbetweenpopular cultureandelitistculturehaveblurred.Thebluessongs(oncedenigrated as “race music”) of Robert Johnson are now revered by musicologists; architecturalstudentsstudybuildingsinLasVegas,Nevada,asexamples of what Robert Venturi called the “kitsch of high capitalism”; sports- writer Gay Taleseand heavyweightboxingchampFloydPattersonwere co-panelists at a 1992 State University of New York–New Paltz sympo- sium on literature and sport. The examples go on and on, but the one commonality that emerges is the role of popular culture as a model for the American Dream, the dream to pursue happinessand a better,more interesting life. To trace the numerous ways in which popular culture has evolved throughoutAmericanhistory,wehavedividedthevolumesinthisseries into chronological periods—historical eras until the twentieth century, thedecadesbetween1900and2000.Ineachvolume,theauthorexplores the specific details of popular culture that reflect and informthegeneral undercurrentsofthetime.Ourpurpose,then,istopresenthistoricaland analytical panoramas that reach both backward into America’s past and forward to her collective future. In viewing these panoramas, we can trace a very fundamental part of American society. The“AmericanPop- ular Culture Through History” series presents the multifaceted parts of a popular culture in a nation that is both grown and still growing. Ray B. Browne Secretary-Treasurer Popular Culture Association American Culture Association Introduction The era commonly referred to as the “early republic” or the “early na- tionalist period” was, unequivocally, the most unstable and tumultuous in American history. Victorious in the American War of Independence, the citizenry of the new nation weathered numerous social and political upheavals, among them diplomatic intrigues (the XYZ Affair, 1797– 1798), controversialwartimesecuritymeasures(AlienandSeditionActs, 1798), wars (the Tripolitan War, 1801–1805, and the War of 1812), and domestic uprisings (Shays’s Rebellion, 1786–1787, and the Whiskey Re- bellion, 1794). Furthermore, the government was regarded by many as a grand experiment, one which the world had never seen before. Historians differ on the dates of the early nationalist period, some preferring to include the years of the American Revolution itself (1776– 1783), somecitingtheratificationoftheConstitution(1789)asthebegin- nings of thisera. Thisvolume, however,coverstheyearsconcludingthe Revolutionary War (1783), includingtheWarof1812(sometimesknown as the Second War for Independence), and leading up to the Western Expansionismmovement(approximately1816),thusencompassingape- riod of Anglo-American hostility. The signing of the Treaty of Ghent (December 24, 1814) ended this era ofmutual mistrustbetweenEngland andtheUnitedStates.Onlyafterreestablishingcordialrelationswiththe parent country could Americans focus on westward expansion, an era characterized by a growing nationalism and its corollary goal of “en- larging the empire for liberty.” Thus,thisbooksurveysspecificculturalformsofAmericanlifeduring this unique age of Anglo-American hostility. Although tense relation- ships with European powers might have predominated the temper of
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