On the Make : Clerks and the Quest for Capital in Nineteenth-Century America Paperback / softback
by Brian P. Luskey
Part of the American History and Culture series
Paperback / softback
Description
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.
Information
-
Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:287 pages
- Publisher:New York University Press
- Publication Date:01/12/2011
- Category:
- ISBN:9780814753101
Other Formats
- Hardback from £80.00
- EPUB from £21.31
Information
-
Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:287 pages
- Publisher:New York University Press
- Publication Date:01/12/2011
- Category:
- ISBN:9780814753101
