Fischer’s dense analysis of social change is brought to life by the stories of ordinary people, extracted from historical documents quoted in academic papers, books and studies. Indentured maids are no longer sent to the workhouse, as in Philadelphia in 1786. Young boys of 10 or 11 years old are no longer treated like Chauncey Jerome, a clockmaker whose father’s death in 1804 led to him being sent away to work.
But the fascination of this book lies in seeing how much has indeed remained the same. Fischer points out that the idea of Americans as addicted to credit and living beyond their means is not as new as we might think. Paul Dudley, attorney general of the colony of Massachusetts, lamented in the early 18th century, “that people … are fallen beyond their Circumstances, in their Purchases, Buildings, Expenses, Apparel, and generally whole way of Living”.
More positively, Americans have continued to display an enthusiasm for joining groups ”“ from their churches to the Elks fraternity, and more recently to book groups and internet discussions ”“ a tendency that struck Alexis de Tocqueville, the French political thinker, when he toured America in the 1830s.
This, says Fischer, points not to the John Wayne-like individualism popularly seen as an all-American attribute, but to the very American characteristic of voluntarism.
Look at Thomas Jefferson. Anyone who has read about Jefferson, the third president of the United States and writer of the Declaration of Independence, knows about his profligate spending, his living on the credit provided by European bankers, and his disgusting obsession with building and rebuilding his house despite his family’s financial straits. Jefferson’s estate was auctioned as soon as he was dead.
This was of course in contrast to George Washington, the gentleman farmer who watched every penny, was generous and yet prudent with his funds and who died a rich man.
Has anyone read Fischer’s book? It sounds really fascinating.