ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that a materialistic interpretation of American society sharply underestimates the extent to which basic national values, once institutionalized, give shape to the consequences of technological and economic change. Many social analysts have sought to show how the increasing industrialization, urbanization, and bureaucratization of American society have modified the values of equality and achievement. Foreign travelers’ accounts of American life, manners, and character traits constitute a body of evidence with which to test the thesis that the American character has been transformed during the past century and a half. The foreign travelers were also impressed by the American insistence on equality in social relations, and on achievement in one’s career. American emphasis on equalitarianism as a dominant value is significant in determining what to many of the Europeans were three closely related processes: competition, status uncertainty, and conformity.
