Community
It is in the small New England communities that De Tocqueville found the heart of American democracy. Habits of the heart resided not in Boston, but in Grover’s Corner. Rigid social class distinctions tended to melt away in the give-and-take of local community politics. Town hall meetings were as influential in the formulation of local public policy as the smoke-filled rooms of the industrial leaders who lived many miles removed from these communities. Education for most citizens occurred in the local public schools rather than the boarding schools that were open only to the wealthy. As noted, there weren’t many public colleges or universities – in part because this level of education was typically seen as needed by only those young, wealthy men (not women) who were preparing for the ministry, law, or medicine.
What about the local theaters and performing arts centers, often going by the somewhat grandiose title of “opera house”? Many actors, writers, and vaudevillians were touring the small towns of New England (as well as other small American communities). Internationally known performers like Sarah Bernhardt, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain headlined what was the most active live entertainment era in the history of the United States. Soon after Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published, multiple theatrical versions of this novel were touring the country. They were stoking the abolitionist fervor found in New England and many other Northern regions of the United States. Habits of the heart were truly beating in the small New England communities.
I am about to say more about these habits as we travel to the Western region of America and look at the culture of this “untamed” region. The Harvey Girls were sent to provide some taming in this region. A new form of Worth was driving this culture. A new Worth was founded. It was based on Entrepreneurship and Risk.
Culture of the American West
The culture of the American West stands in direct contrast to that of New England. This was especially before the American West became “gentrified (attracting many people from the East). Much of the Wild West soon became quite tame as it was being littered with major cities and sprawling suburbs in states like Colorado, Arizona, and California.
It is the early culture of the American West in which the Harvey Girls lived and labored, and to which many were attracted. We will therefore concentrate on the early West, which was “discovered” by the American explorers and pioneers (recognizing, as we have already noted, that this large region of North America had been discovered and inhabited for many centuries by Indigenous people who had migrated long ago from Asia).
I will introduce three themes in exploring this culture. They are: (1) manifest destiny, (2) a go-getting orientation, and (once again) (3) community.
