A New Birth Of Freedom?

About the Book

This book is a series of essays about changes in American values during the mid-nineteenth century that resulted from the Industrial Revolution and American Civil War–their impact on the American Dream. Dreams are subject to interpretation; they may mean different things to one than to another. The American Dream is no exception. How many times have you heard the expression? “It all depends on how you look at things.” Over the past two centuries there has been more change in the way mankind lives than in the preceding two thousand years. Between 1776 and 1840 the United States more than doubled in area, population and production. The Industrial Revolution created new attitudes about our political and social structure. Americans became obsessed with the concept of more-faster-cheaper. The steam engine freed the textile mills of the North from their dependence on power from “the old mill stream.” The cotton gin made large-scale production of short staple cotton profitable in the South. The steam locomotive and steamship revolutionized transportation of people, goods and services. The telegraph provided almost instant communication over long distances. The first European settlers of North America came in search of opportunity and/or freedom. Have we remained a nation of immigrants seeking these values? The Declaration of Independence states “ . . . all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men . . .” Does this historical statement of the role of government mean to us today what it meant to citizens in 1776? Is the role of government to regulate conflicts between individual freedom and social order? The word “Democracy” does not appear in either our Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. Has our Representative Government become a Democracy? If so, when? A New Birth of Freedom? suggests answers. At the time the Declaration was written, “men” in the phrase “all men are created equal” meant white, male, Europeans. Ever since the early 19th century Eastern, Southern, and Western sections interpreted “unalienable rights” differently. Each section considered those holding different concepts of these “rights” to be “wrong.” By 1860 the conflicting concepts of the Dream resulted in armed conflict over the nature of our national development. This Northern “Civil War” or Southern “War between the States” changed forever the future of Americans and their concept of the Dream. By the end of the Civil War/Reconstruction period (about 1880-90) the American Dream had been transformed. The war “to preserve the Union” had changed the American economy. Agricultural products, banking and commercial enterprises became national in scope. The goal “to preserve the Union” was achieved. However, the Union that was “preserved” differed from that of prewar America. It had been radically changed by the War and the concurrent Industrial Revolution. Americans still talked as “Easterners.” “Southerners” or “Westerners.” (They still do today.) However they organized as farmers, miners, manufacturers or commercial carriers regardless of their sectional orientation. The word “National” or “American” precedes farm, labor, and manufacturing organizations. An unexpected result of the war was the creation of a new world power, the United States of America. England, France and Russia sought our friendship and assistance in their European conflicts. During the 20th century the United States became the most powerful nation in the world–only to encounter new challenges to the American Dream as a world -wide economy evolves today. * * * The book is written for the general reader but should also help foreign students in Colleges and Universities understand the contradictions between American’s “belief” and practice.

About the Author

Carl A. Wagner, Professor Emeritus, College of San Mateo, served as Immigrant Student Advisor and taught courses in American Institutions for Foreign Students. While living at the University of Illinois Cosmopolitan Club, frequent subjects of student discussion were conflicts between the American Dream and current problems. A sabbatical year at the University of Sussex provided opportunities to compare British and American versions of democracy.