Pragmatism and the political economy of cultural revolution, 1850-1940

Resource Information

The work Pragmatism and the political economy of cultural revolution, 1850-1940 represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Missouri Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Pragmatism and the political economy of cultural revolution, 1850-1940

Statement of responsibility

James Livingston

Creator

• Livingston, James, 1949-

Subject

• Consumer behavior -- United States -- History
• Cultuurverandering
• Economische ontwikkeling
• History
• Industries -- Social aspects -- United States -- History
• Pragmatism
• Pragmatisme
• United States -- Civilization -- 1865-1918
• United States -- Civilization -- 1918-1945
• United States -- Civilization -- 19th century
• United States -- Economic conditions -- 1865-1918
• United States -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945
• Capitalism -- United States -- History

Genre

• History

Language

eng

Summary

• "The rise of corporate capitalism was a cultural revolution as well as an economic event, according to James Livingston. That revolution resides, he argues, in the fundamental reconstruction of selfhood, or subjectivity, that attends the advent of an "age of surplus" under corporate auspices. From this standpoint, consumer culture represents a transition to a society in which identities as well as incomes are not necessarily derived from the possession of productive labor or property. From the same perspective, pragmatism and literary naturalism become ways of accommodating the new forms of solidarity and subjectivity enabled by the emergence of corporate capitalism. So conceived, demonstrates Livingston, they become ways of articulating alternatives to modern, possessive individualism." "Livingston argues accordingly that the flight from pragmatism led by Lewis Mumford was an attempt to refurbish a romantic version of modern, possessive individualism. This attempt still shapes our reading of pragmatism, Livingston claims, and will continue to do so until we understand that William James was not merely a well-meaning middleman between Charles Peirce and John Dewey and that James's pragmatism was both a working model of postmodern subjectivity and a novel critique of capitalism."--Jacket
• "The rise of corporate capitalism was a cultural revolution as well as an economic event, according to James Livingston. That revolution resides, he argues, in the fundamental reconstruction of selfhood, or subjectivity, that attends the advent of an "age of surplus" under corporate auspices. From this standpoint, consumer culture represents a transition to a society in which identities as well as incomes are not necessarily derived from the possession of productive labor or property. From the same perspective, pragmatism and literary naturalism become ways of accommodating the new forms of solidarity and subjectivity enabled by the emergence of corporate capitalism. So conceived, demonstrates Livingston, they become ways of articulating alternatives to modern, possessive individualism." "Livingston argues accordingly that the flight from pragmatism led by Lewis Mumford was an attempt to refurbish a romantic version of modern, possessive individualism. This attempt still shapes our reading of pragmatism, Livingston claims, and will continue to do so until we understand that William James was not merely a well-meaning middleman between Charles Peirce and John Dewey and that James's pragmatism was both a working model of postmodern subjectivity and a novel critique of capitalism."--BOOK JACKET

Member of

• Cultural studies of the United States

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

973

Government publication

government publication of a state province territory dependency etc

Index

index present

LC call number

E169.1

LC item number

.L58 1994

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Series statement

Cultural studies of the United States