Project Gutenberg's The Promise Of American Life, by Herbert David Croly
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Title: The Promise Of American Life
Author: Herbert David Croly
Release Date: December 22, 2004 [EBook #14422]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN LIFE
BY HERBERT CROLY
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
* * * * *
Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1909. Reprinted
June, 1910; April, 1911; March, 1912.
Norwood Press
J.S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
Dedicated
TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE
DAVID GOODMAN CROLY
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
WHAT IS THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN LIFE?
CHAPTER II
THE FEDERALISTS AND THE REPUBLICANS
CHAPTER III
THE DEMOCRATS AND THE WHIGS
CHAPTER IV
SLAVERY AND AMERICAN NATIONALITY
CHAPTER V
THE CONTEMPORARY SITUATION
CHAPTER VI
REFORM AND THE REFORMERS
CHAPTER VII
RECONSTRUCTION; ITS CONDITIONS AND PURPOSES
CHAPTER VIII
NATIONALITY AND DEMOCRACY
CHAPTER IX
THE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY AND ITS NATIONAL PRINCIPLES
CHAPTER X
A NATIONAL FOREIGN POLICY
CHAPTER XI
PROBLEMS OF RECONSTRUCTION--PART I
CHAPTER XII
PROBLEMS OF RECONSTRUCTION--PART II
CHAPTER XIII
CONCLUSIONS--THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE NATIONAL PURPOSE
INDEX
THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN LIFE
CHAPTER I
I
WHAT IS THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN LIFE?
The average American is nothing if not patriotic. "The Americans are
filled," says Mr. Emil Reich in his "Success among the Nations," "with
such an implicit and absolute confidence in their Union and in their
future success that any remark other than laudatory is inacceptable to
the majority of them. We have had many opportunities of hearing public
speakers in America cast doubts upon the very existence of God and of
Providence, question the historic nature or veracity of the whole fabric
of Christianity; but never has it been our fortune to catch the
slightest whisper of
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