Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class

by E. Digby Baltzell

Overview

This is a classic study of Philadelphia’s business aristocracy of colonial stock with Protestant affiliations. It is also an analysis of how fabulously wealthy nineteenth-century family founders produced a national upper-class way of life. But as that way of life came to an end, the upper-class outlived its function; this, argues E. Digby Baltzell, is precisely what took place in the Philadelphia class system. For sociologists, historians, and those concerned with issues of culture and the economy, this is indeed a classic of modern social science.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412855105
Publisher:	Transaction Large Print
Publication date:	12/12/2014
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	486
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

E. Digby Baltzell (1915-1996) was Emeritus Professor in the sociology department at the University of Pennsylvania. He also served as in various visiting professorial roles at Princeton Theological Seminary and Harvard University. He was author of 'The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy and Caste in America' and 'Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia’ Two Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Class Authority', where many ideas initially suggested in Philadelphia Gentlemen' were first worked out.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Transaction Edition Preface to the First Edition 1 Introduction 2 The American Metropolitan Upper Class and the Elite 3 The Philadelphia Upper Class and the Elite in 1940 4 The Structure and Function of an Upper Class 5 Pre-Civil War First Family Founders 6 Post-Civil War Family Founders 7 Proper Philadelphia Public Servants, Professionals, and Men of Letters 8 The Old Family Core of the 1940 Elite 9 Neighborhood and the Class Structure 10 Religion and the Class Structure 11 Parallel Upper-Class Structures 12 Education and Status Ascription 13 Social Clubs and the Class Structure 14 A Primary Group of Prestige and Power 15 Summary and Conclusion Afterword: The American Aristocrat and Other-Direction Index

Editorial Reviews

A very, very important book.” —The New York Times “Philadelphia Gentlemen says important things about class and power in America, and says them in ways that will interest and fascinate.” —Seymour Martin Lipset, American Sociological Review "Sociologists, in their studies of social classes in America, have emphasized the existence of several dimensions of stratification. Wealth, prestige, and power, they have attempted to show, create qualitatively different hierarchical systems which while closely bound together are none the less distinct. In his fascinating study of 'Proper Philadelphia,' Mr. Baltzell has retained this scheme by separating the élite—the dimension of power—from the upper class—the dimension of prestige. . . . Philadelphia Gentlemen provides a coherent picture of an upper class." —John Porter, Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science "The very strength of Philadelphia Gentlemen—its attention to historical development—underlines the failure of Pennsylvania historians, by and large, to provide adequate intensive studies of the careers of individual businessmen, the patterns of economic and social change, the political movements, the intellectual, religious, and artistic atmosphere—the historical milieu, in a word, out of which his Philadelphia gentlemen emerged." —Frederick B. Tolles, Pennsylvania History "The author of Philadelphia Gentlemen has done an excellent job of research and of presentation. By the time they reach the end of the book, the readers will be well acquainted with the social life and the various characteristics of a metropolitan society's upper class. In short, the book is a fine sociological study and as such a good investment for the college library as well as the personal library of any sociologist, psychologist, or social worker." —Sister Mechtraud, S.SP.S, The American Catholic Sociological Review "A valuable work. Men of power in our great cities may not necessarily be men of national power. But the cities themselves are of immense importance; our knowledge of them and of the direction of life in them will be greatly enhanced when we have studies of other metropolitan upper classes as good as this one of Philadelphia." —William Miller, American Sociological Review "Well written and all terms are defined concisely. Philadelphia Gentlemen is a gold mine of information and a possible guide to future class analyses. Historians should thank Baltzell for providing some concrete measuring methods for social history." —Dorothy D. Gondos, The American Historical Review

From the Publisher