Democracy In America By Irving H. Bartlett Summary
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Irving H. Bartlett is the author of several books that analyze parts of the history of the United States. Bartlett was born in 1923 and died in 2006. He obtained his Ph.D. at Brown University in 1952. Bartlett is nationally recognized for his biographies of Daniel Webster and Wendell Phillips as well as his studies of American ideals in the antebellum era. He spent his professional life trying to understand the United States in the antebellum era by looking at the different perspectives of that era and analyzing the lives and ideas of some of the prominent thinkers and politicians. Bartlett wrote that his study of John C. Calhoun was part of his “continuing attempt to understand how the political culture of this country has been expressed…show more content… Bartlett uses Tocqueville's book, Democracy in America as a reference in his own book to gain insight into the American mind during the mid eighteen hundreds (Bartlett). Tocqueville was a French aristocrat who came to America in 1931. His book discussed issues such as money, press, religion, racism, and the role of government in the United States (All About). Bartlett also discusses some of these same issues in The American Mind in the Mid-Nineteenth Century, which is why Tocqueville's work is a good reference for him. There are four main points in Bartlett's book. The first point is how religion influenced the thoughts of Americans during the time. Secondly, Bartlett emphasized how politics influenced the people in nineteenth century America. The next point he makes the similarities and differences in the thoughts of the South compared to the North.When making each point, Bartlett not only uses the ideas of Tocqueville, he looks at the ideas of several others as well…show more content… 89). Ushistory.org says that another argument for those who were for slavery is that the abolition of it would cause the cotton economy to crash. They also said the freeing slaves would lead to unemployment problems. Defenders of slavery also argued that slaves were treated better than the poor in Europe (The Southern). Bartlett ends his discussion of the mind of the South with the idea of patriarchy, which is the idea the the plantation owner was to take care of his slaves as he did his own family. This idea was one of the best arguments for slavery at the time. Bartlett said that it was ironic for Americans to deny slaves the freedom that they longed for themselves